Despite five games without a win and losing to Barcelona in their last home match (2-4 on March 16 in LaLiga), they hadn't lost consecutive matches at the Metropolitano since December 2021 (0-1 vs Milan in the Champions League and 1-2 vs Mallorca in LaLiga).
Diego Simeone's squad were clearly more than capable of getting the result they required, but would've understood, of course, that in order to progress they had to stop the Barca goalscoring juggernaut.
Before Wednesday's game, the Catalans had already scored 139 goals in all competitions - at least 20 more than any other team in Europe’s big five leagues.
Further, Barcelona hadn’t lost any of their last 12 away matches (W9 D3), averaging 3.16 goals per game in that run, and are the team to have beaten Diego Simeone the most times in all competitions (G39 W21 D12 L6) - including wins in each of the last three matches at the Metropolitano.
Barcelona beat Atleti at their own game
After an epic 4-4 draw in a first leg in which there were eight different scorers, another blockbuster 90+ minutes was expected. Fittingly, you couldn't take your eyes off the second leg for a moment such was the end-to-end nature of proceedings.
A feisty start saw one of those rare occasions when the match official was sent to the monitor by VAR only to stick with his original yellow card decision.
“I want to see the full impact, please,” Jose Luis Munuera Montero said to VAR in the audio that's been released from after the Cesar Azpilicueta challenge on Raphinha. “Okay, for me, it’s not full. He hits him from the side. Give me another camera, I want to see it better. He hits him not fully, laterally. I’m staying with the yellow card, Juan.”
Three yellow cards for Atleti in the first 12 minutes (Azpilicueta, Rodrigo de Paul and Diego Simeone) suggested that the Rojiblancos were going to be happy to revert to the dark arts if required, though Barcelona took to strong arm tactics as needed too, and their 10 fouls in the first half was higher than their season average.
The Catalans actually won more of their tackles (10 from 12) than Atleti's seven from 13, suggesting that the visitors had gone some way to beating the hosts at their own more physical game as well as playing them off the pitch.
Incredibly, the visitors had an astonishing 72.3% possession in the 15 minutes up to the half-hour mark (and 56.7% overall) against an Atleti side that are no pushovers. The aggressive high line that Hansi Flick's side love to play gave the hosts barely any chance to get their natural game going in the opening 45 particularly.
Once Ferran Torres' effort gave Barca the lead after 26 minutes, it spelled danger for Simeone's side because the Blaugranes had a record of W3, D0, L0 when scoring the opening goal in the Copa del Rey this season.
Atleti wouldn't have needed any reminding either that they'd failed to win any of their last eight matches when conceding first in the Copa del Rey since a victory over Reus Deportiu on December 1st, 2015.
It was the Shark's fifth goal in this season's competition, more than any other player, and justified his inclusion in the starting line-up ahead of Robert Lewandowski.
Barca's 12th first-half goal in five Copa del Rey games this season and Atleti's fourth first-half goal conceded in their five games are also the most for either side in their respective cup runs.
Lamine Yamal provides the gold standard again
Lamine Yamal continues to set the gold standard despite his tender years, and he was at it again in the Metropolitano. His assist to Ferran was his third in the Spanish cup in 2024/25 and another contribution to goals in his last five games in the competition (3 goals, 3 assists).
Whether on the front or back foot, Barca stopped Atleti from building up a head of steam, with the normally businesslike Marcos Llorente only managing a paltry nine touches of the ball before half-time.
51 by the end of the game and a pass completion of 86.2% was Atleti's fifth best on the night, however, a generally lacklustre performance saw him manage just a single touch in the opposition box.
For a player that prides himself on getting forward to supplement the attack in dangerous areas, that's woeful.
Three touches in Barcelona's penalty area from Julian Alvarez was the most of any Atleti player, and that, in a nutshell, is the story of the game.
At every opportunity, Barca's players swarmed around the Rojiblancos and once in possession of the ball made life very difficult for them.
Four completed dribbles from 12 attempted by the hosts won't have impressed those who had paid their hard earned in the hope of seeing their side reach the final, and Simeone's side were also so wayward with their shooting that when they did get chances they came to nothing, 2014/2015 being the last time Atleti didn't manage to get a single shot on target in a Copa del Rey game.
Barcelona have now scored in their last eight Spanish cup games, their longest run in the competition since scoring in eight matches from March 3rd, 2021, to March 2nd, 2023.
Interestingly, both sides had their lowest amount of total shots in the game, Atleti with six and Barca with 15 (nine of those from Lamine Yamal (4) and Raphinha (5)).
The win extends Barcelona's unbeaten run in 2025 and after Atleti had lost just once in 26 matches in all competitions, they've now failed to win in six, losing five of them.
As a side note to Wednesday's game, when was the last time that one semi-final first leg ended 4-4 and the second 1-0, with the other semi (Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad) seeing a 1-0 win in the first leg and a 4-4 draw in the second?!
