Barcelona and Atlético Madrid were drawn against each other for the two-legged Copa del Rey semi-finals, after which the winner can expect to face archrivals Real Madrid in the final.
By Neel Shelat
Barcelona’s fine form in 2025
Barcelona rather ran out of steam at the end of 2024 as they won just one of their last seven domestic games of the year. However, they certainly seemed to hit the reset button in the winter break as they have won 10 and drawn the other two of their 12 games so far in 2025.
That run of results includes their last two Copa del Rey ties against UD Barbastro and Real Betis, the memorable Supercopa 5-2 Clásico victory (which is just one of seven games in which Barça scored four or more goals) and an ongoing five-match winning streak.
Atlético Madrid’s watertight defence
Atlético Madrid’s summer transfer business heavily focused on revamping their attack, but defence has still remained the key to success for Diego Simeone’s side.
Atléti have conceded multiple goals in just one domestic match this term, so they unsurprisingly have the best defensive record in LaLiga, and by a notable margin.
On the flip side, Barcelona have scored by far the most goals in the Spanish top flight this season, so an epic battle looks to be on the cards.
Barcelona’s tough-to-swallow defeat in the last meeting
Of course, these two teams met pretty recently in LaLiga. That match was also held at the Olympic Stadium, where Atlético staged a late turnaround to knock Barcelona off the top of the table.
That loss must have been particularly tough to digest for the hosts given the fact that they absolutely dominated proceedings throughout the match but conceded twice against the run of play.
On the flip side, Hansi Flick must have had a lot of positives to take away from his team’s overall performance in that game, which might even make them the favourites for this tie.
Both sides near full strength
Another reason to be excited about this game is that we should expect to see two near full-strength XIs. Lamine Yamal was absent for the last meeting with an ankle injury, but he should be expected to start along with all of Barcelona’s star forwards. Andreas Christensen’s fitness is the only question for the Blaugrana, as Marc-André ter Stegen and Marc Bernal are out for the season.
Koke is the only player on Atlético Madrid’s injury list, so Simeone will have all of his attackers to choose from. Assuming he sticks to the trusty 4-4-2 formation, the recent pattern suggests that Julián Alvarez should be expected to start alongside Antoine Griezmann, while Alexander Sørloth will likely come on off the bench in the second half.
Prediction
These two closely matched rivals will be keen to not lose this cup tie in the first leg, so we should expect a tight contest. Barcelona’s powerful attack should aim to break through Atléti’s staunch defence, but the visitors’ counterattacking threat may also cause problems for what can be a sometimes disarrayed defence. All of that might result in a 1-1 score draw.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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