Nine-man Barca squeeze into final

A thrilling spectacle at Camp Nou saw Atletico Madrid push nine-man Barcelona to the edge, but the Catalans held on to reach yet another Copa del Rey final.

Arda Turan replaced the suspended Neymar for Barca, who also brought back Jordi Alba, Sergi Roberto and Luis Suarez. An attack-minded Atleti, meanwhile, were similarly without captain Gabi Fernandez but named Lucas Hernandez as a substitute, in the defender’s first inclusion since his arrest on domestic-abuse charges last week.

La Blaugrana led 2-1 from the semi-final’s first leg as they looked to make it four, straight Copa finals and three under Luis Enrique, but they were dealt a rude awakening by Diego Simeone’s troops, who had a goal wrongly ruled out and missed a penalty among a barrage of missed chances.

Nonetheless, the first opportunity fell to Barca and Suarez, who spinned past Stefan Savic in the Atleti area, but his low drive was pushed away by Miguel Moya.

The hosts would have to wait until the end of the half for another opening as Yannick Carrasco dropped his shoulder, coming inside from the left, and only had Jasper Cillessen to beat, but his curling finish was straight at the goalkeeper.

Cillessen then made a terrific stop on his line to push away Savic’s header, although was quickly adjudged offside, before the Dutchman was at it again to tip a Koke shot around the post and catch Diego Godin’s bullet header.

Fernando Torres was clearly held back by the struggling Sergi Roberto in the box from a free kick after the striker was fouled in the air by Gerard Pique, but the referee waved play on.

After a relentless opening half-hour from Atleti, Barca finally began to assert themselves. From there, it didn’t take long for Suarez to mop up the rebound from a spilled Messi shot right on the stroke of half-time.

Two early blows for Atleti in the second half saw Nico Gaitan and Godin pull up with knocks. They were replaced by Angel Correa and Lucas, who was subjected to boos and insults after his arrest on domestic abuse charges last week.

However, the focus suddenly switched to Sergi, who flew into Filipe Luis’ knee near the left-hand touchline, just before he was due to be replaced by Aleix Vidal, and picked up a second yellow to rule him out of the final.

The atmosphere became even more sour when Griezmann was clearly level with Gerard Pique when he fired a finish into the bottom-right corner of Cillessen’s net, but the linesman disagreed.

Arda’s final involvement before being replaced by Sergio Busquets earlier than planned was to be wiped out by a reckless challenge from Carrasco for his second yellow.

Andres Iniesta’s return was supposed to be a calming influence on proceedings, but it was quickly followed by a crazy, four-minute spell that turned the game on its head.

Moments after Messi’s thunderous free kick clipped the bar, Pique slid through substitute Kevin Gameiro in the box, leaving the referee with no hesitation. The striker, however, blasted the spot-kick into orbit.

Still, he was allowed to make amends when Griezmann pulled the ball back him for a tap-in with six minutes of normal time remaining.

Barca responded through Suarez, who finished with aplomb at the other end, but Messi threaded through his strike partner too late.

The Catalans’ backs were sent back against the walls for the last few minutes as Koke fell very easily under a challenge from Suarez, who saw a second yellow and will miss the final as a result.

Cillessen managed to get a massive touch to pluck a corner out of the air, before no Atleti player could turn in Koke’s tantalising cross at the far post.

Filipe’s deliberate foul from behind on Messi killed the final two of the five minutes signalled for injury time as bad blood erupted between both sets of players and coaches, before Busquets was booked for kicking the ball away.

Barcelona 1-1 Atletico Madrid (3-2 agg.)

Suarez 43 (B) Gameiro 83 (AM)

Barcelona: Cillessen; Sergi, Pique, Umtiti, Alba; Rakitic (Iniesta 72), Gomes, Denis (Mascherano 62); Messi, Suarez, Arda (Busquets 70)

Atletico Madrid: Moya; Juanfran, Godin (Lucas 49), Savic, Filipe; Koke, Saul, Gaitan (Correa 48), Carrasco; Griezmann, Torres (Gameiro 71)

Referee: Gil Manzano

Sergi sent off 57, Suarez sent off 90 (B) Carrasco sent off 69 (AM)

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