Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said his side were taught a lesson by Atlético Madrid as they suffered a 4-0 loss at the Metropolitano on Thursday in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal between the two teams.
All four goals arrived in the first half, with an Eric García own goal opening the scoring before strikes from Antoine Griezmann, Ademola Lookman and Julián Álvarez sealed an emphatic victory for Atlético.
The return game will take place at Spotify Camp Nou on March 3, with the winners meeting either Real Sociedad or Athletic Club in the final.
«We didn’t play very good in the first half as a team,» Flick said in the postgame news conference. «We had too much distance between everyone. We didn’t press how we wanted.
«In the first 45 minutes or more, we got a lesson. Sometimes it’s good in the right moment. Maybe today was the right moment.
«I am still proud of my team, maybe not today in the first 45 minutes, but across the whole season. When you see how many injuries we have all season, how we adapt…Today was a heavy loss but I am proud of my team.
«We will come back. We need to start from the beginning [of games]. When you see Atlético players, they had more will, more hunger. And this is what I want from the first minute. We didn’t show that in the first half.
«We have the second leg. We will fight for that. If we are able to win each half 2-0, this is our goal. We need our fans in Camp Nou and we will see what happens.»
The tone was set for the first half when García’s back pass bobbled under goalkeeper Joan García‘s foot, paving the way for an Atlético onslaught.
Griezmann finished a good team move in the 14th minute, Lookman scored his second goal for his new club on the half-hour mark and Álvarez ended an 11-game drought by netting Atlético’s fourth goal in first half stoppage time.
Barça improved after the break and thought they had pulled a goal back in the 51st minute, only for a Pau Cubarsí effort to be ruled out for offside after a review which took over six minutes.
The decision infuriated Flick, who did not hold back when asked for his thoughts on the refereeing, criticising the officials for being too lenient with Atlético challenges early on and unloading when it came to the disallowed goal.
«What should I say?» Flick fumed. «We start with yellow cards. Normally in the first action, with the foul on [Alejandro] Balde, it’s a yellow card, [for sure].
«And then everything is maybe different. But he invited them to play like this. So it’s totally different.
«[As for the disallowed goal], come on, for me it’s a mess. They have to wait seven minutes, oh come on. They find something in this seven minutes? OK.
«When I see this situation, it was clear no offside. Maybe they could see something different. Then tell us. It’s no communication. It’s so bad here.»
Barça’s misery was compounded late on when García was sent off for a last man challenge on Álex Baena, leaving the away team to play the final five minutes plus 10 minutes of stoppage time with 10 men.
Both teams return to LaLiga action next, with league leaders Barça travelling to Girona on Monday and Atlético away at Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
