COPA DEL REY PREVIEW: FC Barcelona v Atlético Madrid
FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid are about to go head-to-head in what promise to be two fascinating legs of their Copa del Rey semi-final. Diego Simeone's side will have home advantage in the second leg, so it is crucially important for the Catalans to get a decent result at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in the Tuesday 9.30pm CET kick-off, which will be followed by over a month's wait before the return gets played at the Metropolitano on the other side of March.
How they got here
As they were not involved in the Spanish Super Cup this year, Atlético started their cup campaign much earlier than Barça. They were in Catalonia for their first game, a 2-0 win at Vic, and then went to Extremadura to defeat Cacereño 3-1. That was the only time in the competition that they have conceded a goal thus far.
Barça entered the competition at the last 32 stage, and had little difficulty seeing off Barbastro 4-0, while Atlético squeezed through at Marbella, winning 1-0.
Both sides then cruised into the quarter finals by four-goal margins, Barça 5-1 against Betis and Atlético winning 4-0 at Elche, and in the quarter finals they both won by equally emphatic 5-0 margins, over Valencia and Getafe respectively.
This means they have only conceded one goal each en route to the semis between them. But despite that stupendous form, one of them will have to sit out the final at La Cartuja in Seville on 26 April, which will be against either Real Madrid or Real Sociedad.
Cup records
With 31 titles, Barça are the 'king of cups', and after missing out on the last three finals, they would dearly love to be in the Andalusian capital in the last weekend of April. Atlético, meanwhile, have had a longer wait. Since the glory of beating Real Madrid at the Bernabéu to win the trophy for the tenth time in 2013, they have never returned to the showpiece match.
If recent history in the competition is anything to go by, the odds are stacked in favour of Barça. Barça progressed the last three times the sides met in the competition, and they are now aiming to advance at Atlético's expense for a record fourth time in a row.
When it comes to semi-finals, the last two meetings have been especially memorable affairs. In 1992-93, Barça progressed by the science fictional margin of 11-0, while 1997 was the night of that extraordinary comeback to win 5-4, with Pizzi's winner now part of blaugrana folklore.
Chance for revenge
On the other side of the coin, after failing with all 18 previous attempts, Simeone finally led his team to victory away from home against Barça when they won 2-1 in La Liga just two months ago.
But the crushing memory of that game will be fresh on the Barça players' mind. They outplayed their visitors for almost the entire 90 minutes, but failed to capitalise and instead got caught out by two Atlético goals that did little to reflect the real run of play. So, this is not just about making the cup final, it's also about making a statement. Barça should not have let that game slip away, and this is the chance to set the record straight.
Barça flying
Barça go into this game on a high. They are yet to lose in 2025, and as well as winning the Spanish Super Cup and advancing to the last 16 of the Champions League behind only Liverpool, they have put their negative run of results late last year well behind them to climb back to the top of the Liga table.
Tuesday's opponents were on a tremendous unbeaten run across all competitions, but Leganés put a stop to that in January. However that remains the only game that Atlético have lost since October, and they are going into Tuesday's game on the back of an emphatic 3-0 win at Valencia on Saturday.
Team news
Both teams go into this game with near full-strength squads, aside from Barça's Ter Stegen and Marc Bernal, who are out for the whole campaign. Indeed, we might even get to see Andreas Christensen make a welcome return for this one. There are doubts concerning Lamine Yamal, who hurt his foot Barça's 2-0 win at Las Palmas on Saturday, but Hansi Flick seems confident enough that the teenager will be able to play.
Atlético's only injury concern is Koke, while Juan Musso has been picked over Jan Oblak on goal for cup matches, and may well get another chance here.
Hansi says
"Atlético Madrid are a great team. They have invested a lot in the squad and they are doing really well. They have the best defence and going forward they have some great players. We will have to be at our best." GET THE FULL STORY HERE