Atletico Madrid 2-3 Barcelona: Neymar runs the show at the Calderón

Posted by: neydmin Posted date: January 28, 2015 In: Neymar news | comment : 0

Full-time: Atletico Madrid 2-3 Barcelona
Goals: Neymar (9′, 41′); Miranda o.g. (39′)
Match date: January 28, 2014
Stadium: Vicente Calderón
Competition: Copa del Rey
Barcelona line-up: Ter Stegen, Jordi Alba, Mascherano, Piqué, Daniel Alves, Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta, Neymar, Lionel Messi, Suárez.

Barcelona are through to the Copa del Rey semi-finals, after leaving behind an over-aggresive Atletico Madrid side in an intense 2-leg tie. Following a 1-0 win at the Camp Nou just a week ago, the Blaugrana showed their superiority once more, but this time in their opponent’s backyard and through a 2-3 win.

The MVP of this Wednesday’s night clash was Neymar, who basically destroyed any Atletico Madrid‘s hopes of finding any success in this season’s Copa del Rey. The hosts were the ones opening the hostilities with just a few minutes played in the first half, when Fernando Torres finished off a fast counter with a clinical right-foot strike from outside the box. However and only a few minutes later, Barcelona responded in the best way they can. Messi, Suárez and Neymar produced a brilliant counter-attack play and the Brazilian didn’t find any troubles in beating Oblak for the first time on the night.

Atletico had their hopes revived around the 30th minute of the first half, when Juanfrán managed to drew a foul from Mascherano already inside Barcelona‘s box. The referee pointed to the spot and Raúl García reestablished the lead to the hosts, setting the score in 2-1. With still 15 minutes left to be played before the break, there was still plenty of time for several more incidents…

Barça drew things level again in the 39th minute, but this time through an unfortunate own goal by Miranda. With Atletico probably still a bit dazed from that unexpected goal, Neymar struck the final blow thanks to a good assist from Jordi Alba on the left. The 22-year old took Oblak out of his way before pushing the ball in into an empty net and scored his 4th Copa del Rey goal this season.

Atletico had then to play the second half with only 10 men on the pitch due to Gabi‘s sending off during half-time (the Spaniard has allegedly insulted the referee when the two teams were heading into the locker rooms) and would still see a second player being shown the red card, when Mario Suárez received his second yellow card in the 84th minute of the game. No more goals were scored until the referee’s final whistle and it’s Barcelona who advances into the competition’s semi-finals, after imposing against Atletico Madrid with an aggregated 4-2 score.

Sources: fcbarcelona.com / sports.yahoo.com