Atletico Madrid 2-3 Barcelona (agg 2-4)

Last night it was the perfect start for Atletico Madrid in a bizarre cup-tie at the Vicente Calderon in which Fernando Torres scored after 39 seconds, Arda Turan threw his boot at the linesman, Gabi was sent off in the dressing room at half-time, Jord Alba was knocked to the ground by a linesman’s flag, and Atletico were reduced to nine men when Mario Suarez tried to kick Leo Messi.

 

Inside the first minute Torres had given Atletico Madrid the lead and drawn the tie level at 1-1. It was the third goal he had scored in the Copa del Rey this season and all of them have come inside the first minute of either the first or second half.

 

Javier Mascherano was at fault. First he tried to play a high diagonal ball out of defence and when it came straight back at him via the boot of Siqueira, Torres got to it first, turned his former Liverpool team-mate and sent a cool finish inside Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s far corner.

 

First Miranda put through his own net under pressure from Suarez after Rakitic had headed down an Andres Iniesta corner. Then with the score back at 2-2 on the night Jordi Alba handled Antoine Greizmann’s shot in the area. The referee should have given a penalty. He didn’t and Alba immediately raced down the other end onto Messi’s pass and crossed for Neymar to make it 3-2 on the night.