Barcelona are through to the 2025\u00a0Copa del Rey\u00a0Final thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win in the second leg of their semi-final tie against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid at the\u00a0Estadio Metropolitano\u00a0on Wednesday night. Bar\u00e7a earned the lead after totally dominating the first half and showed tremendous fighting spirit and resilience to survive a much improved Atl\u00e9tico in the second, and Ferran Torres\u2019 goal was enough to book a spot in the title match against Real Madrid in Seville at the end of this month.\n

FIRST HALF\n

Diego Simeone\u2019s men came out with the exact approach you\u2019d expect from a team desperate to save their season: the\u00a0Colchoneros\u00a0were aggressive and physical from the start, pressing very high and making some rough challenges to try and set the tone for the night.\n

They were lucky to escape without a red card in the first 10 minutes as both C\u00e9sar Azpilicueta and Rodrigo De Paul tackled Raphinha high with their studs up, and the referee was even called to the screen but decided not to leave the home team with 10 men early on.\n

Bar\u00e7a\u2019s response was to simply weather the early storm, take control of the ball and completely dominate the rest of the half, forcing Atleti to defend deeper and deeper as the\u00a0Blaugrana\u00a0moved the ball with purpose and found spaces inside the final third to create good chances.\n

They took the lead shortly before the half-hour mark when Lamine Yamal played a sensational through ball to find Ferran Torres who scored the opener with a neat finish, and the Catalans had at least three excellent opportunities to double their lead but couldn\u2019t quite apply the finishing touch.\n

Atl\u00e9tico looked more and more desperate and out of ideas as they simply couldn\u2019t get the ball back to try and hurt Bar\u00e7a on the counter, and began fouling time and time again which led to an accumulation of yellow cards and a growing sense of anger and frustration from the team, Simeone and the fans, making the atmosphere very tense in the stadium in final minutes of the half.\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
The heart-stopping 2016 MLS Cup finish demands a deep rewind | Toronto FC vs. Seattle Sounders\n
\n
\n
The 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs concluded with two teams — Toronto FC and the Seattle Sounders — duking it out in frigid conditions with a title on the line. The match produced no goals and hardly any chances until late in extra time, when Toronto’s Jozy Altidore soared to head in a perfect cross, with only Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei in his way. Before we watch what became of that header, we’ve gotta look back at the history of these players and these franchises, all hunting their first MLS championship. Let’s rewind.\n
\n
View MoreView Less\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n
The halftime whistle came to end a period thoroughly dominated by Bar\u00e7a, who were 45 minutes away from the title match if they could maintain their composure and their control of the game. But Atleti would surely not go down without a fight, and the second half promised to be tense and intense as the hosts looked to stay alive by any means necessary.\n
SECOND HALF\n
Simeone went to work at halftime and made three substitutions and a formation switch, going to a more attacking 3-4-3 shape and convincing his team to play actual football with good width, a strong presence in the box in the form of Alexander Sorloth and effective high pressing out of possession.\n
Bar\u00e7a simply could not get to grips with all of Atleti\u2019s changes and struggled to keep hold of the ball, losing possession in dangerous positions and allowing real chances at the back. Sorloth missed a huge one-on-one opportunity six minutes into the half, and Atleti\u2019s equalizer seemed like a matter of time.\n
Bar\u00e7a managed to slow down the pace of the game a bit in the next 10 minutes, and Hansi Flick made two changes at the hour mark with Ronald Araujo and Eric Garc\u00eda coming on to try and solidify the midfield and add more strength and height at the backline to deal with Sorloth\u2019s threat. The Norwegian striker almost scored his customary goal against Bar\u00e7a with 20 minutes to go, but it was ruled out for offside.\n
Atl\u00e9tico continued to increase the pressure heading into the final 15 minutes, and Flick sent on Robert Lewandowski looking to add a more physical presence up front to relieve some of the burden faced by the Bar\u00e7a defense. The change worked and the Catalans finally had some extended periods of possession for the first time in the second half, and had more numbers forward and some touches in the opposition box to keep Atleti honest.\n
Both teams looked visibly exhausted as we reached the final five minutes, and Bar\u00e7a became more and more defensive to try and protect their narrow lead. Flick brought on Gerard Mart\u00edn in place of Yamal for extra protection at the back, and the\u00a0Blaugrana\u2019s only purpose was to waste time at the end.\n
The plan worked despite Atl\u00e9tico sending several crosses into the box at the death, but Araujo and his teammates did enough to secure the clean sheet as the final whistle came to send Bar\u00e7a to Seville on April 26, where they will meet Real Madrid for the third time this season with the Spanish Cup trophy on the line.\n
The four-game season series against Atl\u00e9tico is over, and the\u00a0Colchoneros\u00a0gave Bar\u00e7a everything they could handle in 2024-25. But thank goodness we don\u2019t have to play them again for a little while.\n
Well done, boys!\n
\n
Atl\u00e9tico: Musso; Llorente, Azpilicueta (Lenglet 46\u2019), Gim\u00e9nez, Le Normand (Molina 58\u2019), Reinildo (Gal\u00e1n 46\u2019); De Paul, Barrios, Simeone (Sorloth 46\u2019); Alvarez, Griezmann (Riquelme 81\u2019)\n
Goals:\u00a0None\n
Barcelona: Szczesny; Kounde, Cubars\u00ed (Araujo 58\u2019), I\u00f1igo, Balde; Ferm\u00edn (Eric 58\u2019), De Jong, Pedri; Yamal (Mart\u00edn 86\u2019), Ferran (Lewandowski 74\u2019), Raphinha\n
Goal:\u00a0Ferran (27\u2019)\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A brilliant first half, a lot of resilience in the second, and a spot in the title game secured Barcelona are through to the 2025\u00a0Copa del Rey\u00a0Final thanks … \n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11849,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847\/revisions\/11849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}