Defeating Atletico, Barca reaches ticket to King's Cup final

Barca won 2-1 at Atletico Madrid's home ground in the first leg of the King's Cup semi-final.

Goals: Griezmann 59' - Luis Suarez 7', Messi 33'

Barca won thanks largely to two early goals in the first half. This was also the result of two moments of great individuality in attack. In the first situation, Luis Suarez got past four Atletico players and flicked the ball past goalkeeper Miguel Moya. In the second, Messi shot from long range to make it 2-0.

Messi and Suarez both scored to help Barca gain a big advantage. Photo: Reuters

Before and after conceding two goals, Atletico were not too inferior to Barca. The home team even created many opportunities in front of goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen. Part of the reason for the defeat was that Atletico only took advantage of one of those opportunities. This honorary goal came in the 59th minute, when Diego Godin headed the ball across Barca's penalty area, creating an opportunity for Antoine Griezmann to finish accurately.

Griezmann himself missed a golden opportunity that could have brought a 2-2 equalizer for Atletico. The incident happened in the 63rd minute, when this player kicked from just three meters away, the ball flew into goalkeeper Cillessen and bounced out.

Substitute striker Fernando Torres also caused the home fans to regret with a missed shot. The veteran player missed the goal by a meter after stealing the ball from Mascherano's subjective handling.

Atletico only got one goal back thanks to Griezmann.

While Atletico played with great effort in the second half, Barca also created many situations to respond. Suarez almost scored a double with a volley, and Messi had many times tested goalkeeper Moya with free kicks.

In contrast to the high form of Suarez and Messi, the remaining player on Barca's attack, Neymar, played somewhat lacking in fire. This striker caused regret when he failed to control Suarez's pass in the first half, and also missed another opportunity with a shot that went just over the bar.

Barca also had problems in midfield without Busquets and Iniesta. In the role of a ball-winning midfielder, Mascherano had an assist for Suarez's opening goal but made a number of mistakes in the second half. Ivan Rakitic also played an average role before being replaced by Denis Suarez.

The two goals lead gave Barca a huge advantage.

With a 2-1 victory in the first leg away from home, Barca are on course to reach the final. In the second leg next week, coach Luis Enrique and his team can lose 0-1 at home without worrying about losing their ticket to the next round.

The remaining first leg of the semi-final will take place tonight (February 2), between Celta Vigo and Alaves.

According to VNE