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Barcelona coach Hansi Flick was angry at letting a two-goal lead slip against Atlético Madrid but happy with the overall performance as Tuesday’s Copa del Rey semifinal first leg ended in a remarkable 4-4 draw.
Barça led 4-2 heading into the final stages of the game but an 84th-minute strike from Marcos Llorente and a stoppage time goal from Alexander Sorloth earned Atlético a draw which silenced the Olympic Stadium.
The two teams meet again in the second leg at the Metropolitano in Madrid on April 2, with the winner facing either Real Madrid or Real Sociedad in the final.
“Some time after the end of the match it’s still not easy to find the right words,” Flick said in his post-game news conference. “At the end, we are really disappointed about the result, but the game we played today was really great.
“I focus more on this, to keep the confidence very high, but also we have to speak about the goals, because it could not be. It was maybe too easy [for Atlético].
“The fourth goal I am really angry about that. There is no pressure on the ball. This is not how we do it.
“We are young team, we have to improve. Of course it’s not the best result, but we have one match more and I think we are able to win there.”
The manner in which Barça surrendered their advantage late on was even more painful given how hard they had worked themselves to turn the game around.
Julián Álvarez and Antoine Griezmann goals inside the first six minutes had handed Atlético the dream start in the Barcelona drizzle, but the home side fought back impressively.
Pedri got them back in the game before headers from Pau Cubarsí, his first for the club, and Iñigo Martínez completed the turnaround before the break.
Substitute Robert Lewandowski then added the fourth after brilliant work from Lamine Yamal in the 74th minute.
“I think we dominated for 75, 80 minutes,” Flick added. “I am very satisfied with this, how we played, how we came back. The mentality is fantastic.
“With the ball, this is for me the most important thing, I really like this. We are on a good way. So the focus is on the future and very positive.
“I am happy for many things, 95% of things, just 5% not, and this is why we let in four goals today and we have to work on that. It’s our job to do it.”
While the draw may have tasted like a defeat for Barça, they are now unbeaten in 14 games in 2025, winning 11 of them and drawing just three. For Sorloth, it was another moment to savour against his team’s Catalan rivals.
“Such a good feeling playing in Barcelona. I think this is the fourth or fifth game I score against Barcelona here in Barcelona,” Sorloth said after the game. “Just an amazing feeling. Even when I woke up this morning, I just knew I was going to score, so it’s a good feeling.
:It was a rollercoaster. We go up 2-0, then they score four. Of course it’s going to be tough. But we know Barcelona play in a way that they leave a lot of space, so we know we have a possibility to score every time. We have good players entering the pitch, [Samuel] Lino was fantastic, [Angel] Correa fantastic. We have a lot of quality in the team to score goals.”
Flick was also keen to credit Atlético, who beat Barça when they met in LaLiga at the Olympic Stadium in December, for their part in one of the games of the season so far.
“We played a fantastic team,” he said. “Atlético is very strong and they make a lot of pressure in the last 10 minutes, bringing on fresh strikers and the power they have, it wasn’t easy to defend.
“I missed a little bit the confidence with the ball. We also always want to play in the offence, score goals, [but] sometimes it’s good to control the ball, but at the end [the same] could also happen the last 10 minutes anyway.
“After the two early goals against us, we had to invest a lot of energy and maybe we suffer a little in the last 10 minutes. We have to accept it.”