Three talking points as Barcelona scrape past Atletico Madrid in Copa del Rey | OneFootball

FC Barcelona managed to scrape past Atletico Madrid with an important 1-0 win in the Copa del Rey semifinals. It was a completely contrasting game to the one that played out at the Montjuic in the first leg that ended in a thrilling 4-4 draw.

Barcelona emerged 1-0 winners on the night with Ferran Torres scoring the only goal on the night. Usually coming off the bench, the Spaniard was handed a start ahead of Robert Lewandowski and repaid his manager’s faith.

The first half was all about Barcelona who dominated the proceedings and should have scored more than the solitary goal but the second half saw Atletico Madrid hit back and the Catalan club were forced to hold on for dear life towards the end.

With all this in mind, here are three talking points for Barcelona as they scraped past Atletico Madrid in the semifinals of the Copa del Rey at Riyadh Air Metropolitano.

1. A tale of two halves

Much like most of the games between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona have played out this season, this second leg of the semifinals played out as a tale of two halves. Hansi Flick’s men were completely dominant in the first half.

Atletico were camped back in defence and Barcelona led by an in-song Lamine Yamal and Pedri completely dominated proceedings, running circles around the opposition’s defence. More importantly, they managed to convert their dominance into goals.

However, the second half was a completely different story as Atletico Madrid came out like they had nothing to lose. Diego Simeone’s side switched up their system, showed a lot of intensity and took the game to the Catalan side.

Atletico Madrid were the far superior side in the second half of the game but Barcelona showed immense maturity in keeping the ball and seeing out the game. Except on a few occasions, they were hardly threatened in a significant manner and Hansi Flick’s men managed to hang on.

2. The Alexander Sorloth curse is broken – finally!

More than the win over Atletico Madrid last night, if there was one thing that Barcelona fans would have been happy for, it is the fact that they have finally managed to break the Alexander Sorloth curse, a player who has haunted them for some time now.

Sorloth has come off the bench and scored against Barcelona numerous times already this season and the Catalan club would have been suffering from PTSD when the ex-Villarreal striker came on at the start of the second half for Atletico Madrid.

It didn’t take long for the Norwegian to get involved in the game, as he tried to tee up Antoine Griezmann whose shot was saved but Sorloth was flagged offside. He then missed a glorious opportunity through on goal and hit the side netting from close range.

Eventually, Sorloth did manage to put the ball into the back of the net but had fallen suscept to Barcelona’s excellent offside trap. Since that moment, he was hardly involved in the game and the Catalan club have finally broken the Sorloth curse.

3. Lamine Yamal is unstoppable

At this point, it is difficult to find superlatives to describe the phenomenon – Lamine Yamal. Not for the first time this season, the Spanish winger absolutely tormented the Atletico Madrid defense and last night was no different.

Simeone started Giuliano Simeone on the left side of the Atletico Madrid attack instead of his usual right midfield position, mostly to contend with the threat of Lamine Yamal but the Spaniard was hardly perturbed by any of this.

Very early on in the game, he provided one of the passes of the season that almost made its way to Raphinha and had there been slightly more power on it and the Brazilian converted it into a goal, it would have surely been the assist of the season.

He continued to torment the Atletico defence and his assist to Ferran Torres was a moment of genius. Barcelona are lucky to have Lamine Yamal at their disposal and one can only hope it continues for a very long time.