Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final at the Vincente Calderon.
Atletico fielded a simple 4-4-2 formation with Carrasco and Griezmann leading the frontline. While Barcelona went for a 4-3-3 with Messi, Neymar, and Suarez making up the top 3. Barcelona were given the lead in the 7th minute by Luiz Suarez. Suarez showed some individual skill and brilliance as he went past two Atletico players to eventually side foot the ball into the net.
In the 33rd minute, Messi scored a peach of a goal from outside the box. He curled in a beautiful left-footer which beat Moya at the far post. The ball hit the inside on the post and went into the goal. Barcelona went into half time 2-0 thanks to two brilliant individual effort from Barcelona’s star men.
In the second half, Atletico pulled one back in the 59th-minute of the match courtesy of Griezmann. Griezmann who had been a mere spectator in the first half put in a fine header to make it 2-1. 15 minutes before full-time Messi had the chance to restore Barcelona’s two-goal advantage. But he was denied from the free kick by Moya’s fingertips save.
Both teams play the return leg on the 8th of February when Atletico visit Camp Nou. Even though Diego Simeone would have wanted his boys to perform better in the match but he will at least have one goal to take to Barcelona.
