Barcelona suffered a humbling 4-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final tie on Thursday. The Catalans will need to overturn that four-goal deficit if they are to defend the title they won last season, with the second leg coming up at the Spotify Camp Nou.
With the second leg at the Spotify Camp Nou still to come, attention will quickly turn to how Barcelona respond tactically and emotionally after such a bruising night and a long VAR stoppage. It’s also a reminder of how quickly momentum can reshape expectations in a cup tie — something fans often track through shifting odds, including those posted by a legal bukmacher, and the broader match context. With margins this fine, the return leg could be decided by a single moment, making every update on form and selection feel even more significant.
As per Marca, head coach Hansi Flick gave his reaction to the defeat during his post-match press conference. He understood that his side were nowhere near their best at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.
“We didn’t play well in the first half, we didn’t play as a team. The distance between them and us was big. We have not pressed. And in the first 45 minutes we learned a great lesson. The end has been better. We have two more halves and we will fight. If we win 2-0 in every half… we will need our fans at home.”
Despite the defeat and performance, Flick wanted to make it clear that he is not unhappy with his players.
“I’m not disappointed with the team. I’m happy with the team’s season. We’ve had a lot of injuries. Losing is also part of the game. It was a painful defeat, but I’m proud of the team. We have to learn the lesson. They were hungrier to score. And that’s what I want to be like. We didn’t do it in the first 45 minutes. But the team is young, but I don’t make excuses.”
Flick: VAR stoppage is a mess
Flick was also asked about the decision to rule out Pau Cubarsi’s goal after an eight-minute VAR check.
“We started with the yellow cards, the first action on Balde was. Sure. It would have been all different if he showed it. By not doing so, you invite them to play like this. It’s a mess. They have to wait seven minutes, oh come on. They find something in this seven minutes? OK. When I see this situation, it was clear no offside. Maybe they could see something different. Then tell us. There is no communication. It’s so bad here.”
This Flick has no plan B. Barca has always been lucky. Any good team any day will rubish barca. High line, hifh line when you dont have a monile team. Sack this coach with Deco and bring back Xavi as interim. Journalists don’t help barca at all. A good coach would have changed his patter seeing how we concede. So shameful! These players are all overated. The coach wants to kill Cubarsi by playing him every match day. Before injury, he hated Christienson.
Oh, VAR is a mess now? Its a mess when its not going in your favour abi?
Officiating the rightful thing is not a favor thing.
The thing is it should be the rightful decision by the football rules.
An offside decision took 7 minutes to finalize without a point.
Shut the fuck up cunt……male whoeereeeee
It seems u r ok with VAR decisions specially when u r a fuckin Madridista or other team fan.From long time the whole world r against us bcoz we were and we are playing beautiful football,unlike other teams they play shittttyyyy football and yet with the favor of the referees they manage to win their games…how pathetic they are…shame on football discusting
I am a Barcelona fan, But you are a acting like an entitled brat. Stop with the vicious rant please.
Yes we lost, so what? We are still better than Madrid.
Var is a lost cause so don’t worry about it. We have next month to think about
He is full of himself.He talks a lot about officiating when he loses.He is such an idiot.