Barcelona advanced to the Copa del Rey final for a fourth straight time with a 1-1 draw against Atletico de Madrid at Camp Nou.
The highly competitive match saw Luis Suarez score after a great play by Leo Messi, and Kevin Gameiro tie it thanks to a great pass By Antoine Griezmann.
Barcelona’s 1-0 victory in the first leg at Atletico’s Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid forced Diego’s Simeone men to be aggressive from the start in search of an early goal that would help them get even on the aggregate score.
The “Colchoneros” overwhelmed Barcelona in such a way that in the first minutes they had three scoring chances only to see Barcelona’s goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen solve them well. The Dutch goal responded to Yannick Carrasco’s and Diego Godin’s headers, in a sequence of onslaughts that lasted for much of the first half.
Barcelona could not keep the ball in their possession and Messi was missing for a good portion of the first half until the 43rd minute when he combined with Suarez to open the score.
In a superb play, the Argentine left behind three rivals, fired a powerful shot that Moya failed to catch and Suarez scored off the rebound.
Atletico, started the second half with two injuries in the first two minutes. First Nicolas Gaitan and then Godin abandoned the field with injuries that interrupted Atletico’s game dynamic allowed momentum to swing in favor of Barcelona.
Only when Sergi Roberto was sent off due to a double yellow card in the 57th minute was Atletico able to push forward and look for the tie more aggressively. Griezmann momentarily equaled the score, but the referee of the match wrongly called him offside and the goal did not count.
Atletico’s numerical superiority did not last for long because Yannick Carrasco was sent off in the 69th minute for getting his second yellow card, evening the playing field one more time.
Atletico however did have one more chance to tie the game when Gameiro went down inside the penalty area after a foul by Pique. The French striker however missed the penalty hitting the ball on the crossbar before it bounced off the field.
A few minutes later Gameiro made up for the mistake when he sent a great pass from Griezmann past Cillessen to set the 1-1 tie.
Luis Suarez was sent off in the 90th minute of the game and although Atletico had a numerical advantage once more. The “Colchoneros” created a few good scoring chances, but they could not capitalize in the last few minutes they had left, as it was too little time and too late in the game.
Barcelona will try to win its third straight Copa del Rey trophy and its 29th overall. This is the fifth time in the last six years that Barcelona plays the Copa del Rey final and the seventh in the last nine. Barcelona will be looking for its fifth Copa del Rey trophy since the 2008-09 season.
Not since the 50’s has Barcelona won three straight Copa del Rey finals (1951,1952 and 1953), and now the club could achieve that again if it defeats Alaves in the final game of the tournament.
Alaves reached the final after defeating Celta de Vigo with a 1-0 aggregate score thanks to its second leg victory at Mendizorrotza stadium.
The final will be on May 27 at a venue that has yet to be determined.
