The Copa del Rey final will be a Clasico after Barcelona edged out Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano courtesy of a Ferran Torres goal.
Hansi Flick’s side will take on arch-rivals Real Madrid at the Estadio de La Cartuja in Seville on April 26 and will bid to win the competition for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
Against Atleti, Barca were indebted to a masterful display from Lamine Yamal, who teed up Torres — leading the line instead of Robert Lewandowski — for the only goal of the game in the first half, with the teenager bamboozling the hosts’ defence with a devilish through ball.
Dermot Corrigan and Thom Harris break down the main talking points from Barca’s semi-final success.
Youngster Yamal runs the show
A trip to a raucous Metropolitano in a cup semi-final would probably intimidate most 17-year-olds, but barely a fortnight after landing a late sucker-punch to dent Atletico’s title hopes, Yamal was back to haunt them once again.
Such is his talent that it barely took five minutes for him to let 60,000 people know — through no uncertain terms — that he was on it. After a minute, he charged to the byline to get on the end of a floated Pedri pass, absorbed a healthy shove and flashed a tempting ball across goal.
Thirty seconds later, he was nonchalantly dragging the ball through Giuliano Simeone’s legs, right in front of the Atletico player’s dad. Not long after, an outrageous first-time outside-of-the-boot pass for Torres fell agonisingly short of its target — a third flash of genius in as many touches of the ball.
It’s no surprise that Barcelona’s eventual opener came through the teenager, who dropped deeper before sliding a perfectly weighted pass through for Torres to score.
It’s not just the execution to take four players out of the game with one pass but the rhythm to Yamal’s game that keeps him ahead of the rest and able to slow defenders to a halt before picking a defence-splitting ball at any moment.
The beauty of Barcelona’s system is that it helps to isolate Yamal against his full-back, leaving the supply line into their teenage wildcard open at all times.
While Raphinha tucks in from the opposite side — joining Pedri, Fermin Lopez and Frenkie de Jong to overload the centre with technical midfielders — full-back Alejandro Balde pushes on down the left. It forces the opposition to shift over, worried about an overlapping full-back and a buzz of creativity in the middle, while Yamal hangs wide with his arm in the air.
Gliding past hapless defenders, winning fouls, building attacks, cutting inside and whipping the ball towards goal — this was arguably as good as Yamal gets. His ability is frightening, and there are plenty of big nights yet to come.
Thom Harris
Fired-up Atletico go down with a whimper
This was Atletico’s last chance of a regular-season trophy for 2024-25, after recent weeks saw city rivals Madrid end their Champions League hopes (helped by Julian Alvarez’s penalty shootout slip) while one point from their last three La Liga games saw them fall out of the title race.
There was a lot of pent-up emotion around the Metropolitano before kick-off, but Atletico’s players never really got going. Regular bookings did not help. First, Cesar Azpilicueta and Rodrigo De Paul for fouls on Raphinha, then Reinildo and Alvarez for pulling back Yamal when they could not stop the teenager by legal means.
Wearing his ‘lucky’ Copa del Rey tracksuit, Diego Simeone regularly showed his frustration on the sidelines and also ended up in referee Jose Luis Munuera Montero’s book for taking his protests too far for the official’s liking.
Simeone made a triple switch at the break, with centre-forward Alexander Sorloth among the players introduced to play up front, meaning a three-man front line with Antoine Griezmann and Alvarez. It was a risky move, but Atletico had little left to lose.
Now, Simeone’s team were at least moving forward, and Sorloth blazed wide when one-on-one with Barcelona ’keeper Wojciech Szczesny. Clement Lenglet headed a De Paul cross just wide. Alvarez sent Sorloth through again, and this time, the Norwegian thumped the ball past Szczesny… but he was just offside.
The game remained very scrappy and stop-start, and Munuera Montero kept getting his book out. Atletico finished with five yellows (to Barca’s three), but the stat that counted was Torres’s only goal of the night.
Dermot Corrigan
Torres’s sensational scoring rate continues
When your 38-goal striker needs a rest, why not give the younger backup — with an even better scoring rate — his chance to shine?
Barcelona will struggle to replace the natural finishing instincts of Lewandowski once his powers start to dwindle but, for now, the competition of Torres, still only 25 years old, is proving just as valuable as their remarkable season, with Flick’s side still in contention for all three trophies, continues on.
Torres is a different threat to Barcelona’s first-choice No 9 — more dynamic in his movement, happier to drift out wide in rotation with Raphinha to keep defenders guessing, darting around in the build-up — but, crucially, he maintains that eye for goal.
An early combination with Yamal, dropping deep to lay off a pass for the winger before spinning and bursting in behind to receive the one-two, showed the speed and two-way running he can inject into this team.
It was that same combination that linked for the only goal, with Torres reaching a through pass that Lewandowski might not have managed before poking past Juan Musso at full-stretch.
It was Torres’s 16th strike of the season in just 1,294 minutes — a goal every 81 minutes. Of all players with over 10 goals throughout Europe’s big five leagues, that is the deadliest strike rate of the lot.
Scoring off the bench last weekend, netting the winner here, sliding into the six-yard box, powering home late crosses, bundling over the line — it doesn’t matter how the goals come for Torres, but that they are and with astounding consistency.
Thom Harris
A Clasico final looms
While Atletico and their fans will be upset, many in Spain and elsewhere will now be looking forward to a Clasico Copa del Rey final.
Madrid’s dramatic 5-4 aggregate win over Real Sociedad in Tuesday’s other semi-final had already sealed their place in the decider on April 26 in Seville.
Of the seven previous Clasico Copa deciders, Barcelona have won three. Madrid’s four victories include the two most recent meetings in 2011 and 2014, when past galacticos Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale scored dramatic late winners respectively.
It also sets up the tantalising prospect of three upcoming huge Clasicos: La Liga’s top two meet in a potential title-decider in Montjuic in early May, while the first-ever Champions League Clasico final has also been potentially set-up by the Champions League draw.
Dermot Corrigan
What next for Barcelona?
Saturday, April 5: Real Betis (Home), La Liga, 8pm UK (3pm ET)
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(Top photo: Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
