Atletico Madrid "dismantles" Barça, inflicting a heavy 4-0 defeat on them in the first leg, while being very close to the final in the King's Cup. The two teams gave a spectacular challenge, goals, scoring chances, VAR and endless protests. Diego Simeone and his team gave Barça a pure football lesson, scoring a "poker" of goals within the first half, figures that are hard to believe.
A mistake by goalkeeper Joan Garcia gave Atletico the lead in the 6th minute, a detail that had a significant impact on the course of the match. In the 14th minute, with a quick attack, Atletico found the second goal, with Griezmann finishing with a beautiful shot inside the area. Barça tried to get back into the game, but they were also unlucky as they hit the crossbar. In the 33rd minute, the stadium erupted in celebration again when Lookman finished off a quick counterattack with a goal. The fans present in the stadium could not believe their eyes when, in the first half, Julian Alvarez completed the "poker" of goals with a strong shot on the edge of the penalty area.
In such conditions, Barça found it difficult to react, and even when they did, at the start of the second half, VAR stopped their celebrations by canceling a goal for offside. Hansi Flick's team tried to score at least one goal to stay in the game, not only did they fail to do so, but they ended the match with 10 men after Eric Garcia's red card. Madrid burst into celebration for this great victory, being very close to qualifying for the final stage of the King's Cup.
Despite this heavy defeat, Hansi Flick still believes in qualification, but in the press conference he exploded into strong criticism of the match referee: "We didn't play well. We have nothing left to do but think about the return match. It will be difficult, but we will fight. Cubarsi's disallowed goal? I ask why it was disallowed, why it was an offside position. I don't know what they thought, we have to accept it, but I don't agree", said Hansi Flick.
Barça's defeat against Atletico caught the attention of the Spanish media, with the strongest headline being that of Sport: "Total failure."
