Hansi Flick suffered its worst defeat since joining Barcelona as Atletico Madrid delivered a dominant performance in the semi-finals of the 2026 Copa del Rey, achieving a 4-0 result. With qualification for the finals in serious jeopardy, the German coach gave a wake-up call Lamine Yamal and the rest of the Barca squad ahead of the second leg at home.
In a packed Riyadh Air Metropolitano, Barcelona got off to a disastrous start after an Eric García own goal, following a poor strike from goalkeeper Joan García in the sixth minute. Than Antoine Griezmann, Ademola Lookman and Julián Álvarez all added their names to the scoresheet in a ferocious first half, in which Blaugrana faced a crushing deficit.
At the post-match press conference, Flick was asked for his thoughts on the performance, and the German coach was candid: “We didn’t play well as a team in the first half. The distance was too long and we didn’t push as we wanted I would have liked to see the hunger Atletico showed.“
Despite admitting his side were overwhelmed by Diego Simeone’s team, Flick still believes a comeback is possible. “In the second half it was much better, and we still have a game, and we will fight for it. We have two halves left – 45 minutes in which we can try to win both halves 2-0. That’s our goal. We will fight for it, and we will need our fans at home at Camp Nou, and then we will see what happens.”
Lamine Yamal from FC Barcelona.
Tap the disallowed goal
With the final score at 4-0, Atletico, the most dominant team over the full 90 minutes of the first leg, could have increased their lead, while Barcelona also had opportunities to narrow the gap. A key moment then came Pau Cubarsí pounced on a rebound in the penalty area that seemed to give the Blaugrana their first goal.
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Barcelona crushed 4-0 by Atletico Madrid in Copa del Rey: is this Lamine Yamal’s worst defeat of his career?
However, seven minutes later, after a lengthy VAR investigation, the defender’s goal was disallowed. Fermín López’s shot from outside the penalty area was blocked by Robert Lewandowski, and Cubarsí finished the rebound, but VAR ruled a marginal offside in the build-up, a decision that sparked controversy.
When asked about the officiating agency, Flick expressed frustration with the time it took for the decision: “What should I say? To me it’s a mess. They have to wait 7 minutes to find something. Seeing the situation, it was clearly not offside, but in the end maybe they could see something else, but at least tell us. There is no communication, and this is so bad here.“
A discreet performance by Yamal
Barcelona were already without attacking stars such as Raphinha and Marcus Rashford, both sidelined by injury. In that context, expectations were placed on Lamine Yamal, who entered the match on a streak of five consecutive games and could have become the first Barcelona player since Lionel Messi to score in six consecutive games.
Instead, his performance fell short of expectations. The 18 year old was effectively neutralized by Matteo Ruggericharged with marking him accurately, and finished without a single shotjust completed six out of twelve dribbles while lost the ball 29 times.
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