JAKARTA - Barcelona manager Hansi Flick was furious at letting a two-goal lead go missing against Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey first leg semifinal, Wednesday, February 26, 2025, early morning WIB.
Even so, the German coach was happy with his overall team's performance in the match which ended 4-4 at the Olympic Stadium Lluis Companys.
Barcelona had a 4-2 lead in the last 10 minutes of normal time before Marcos Llorente's 84th minute goal and Alexander Sorloth's injury time scored for Atletico to get a draw that silenced the hosts' public.
"Some time after the end of the game it's still not easy to find the right words."
"In the end, we were really disappointed with the result, but the game we played today was really great.
"I'm more focused on this, to keep confidence high. However, we also have to talk about goals because it's impossible. Maybe it's too easy (for Atletico)."
"I'm really angry about the fourth goal. There's no pressure on the ball. This is not how we do it."
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"We are a young team, we have to improve. Of course this is not the best result, but we have one more game and I think we can win there," Flick told a news conference after the game.
The way Barcelona gave up their lead at the end of the game was even more painful given how hard they worked to turn things around.
The Blaugrana were two goals behind when the game had only been running for six minutes. Julian Alvarez and Antoine Griezmann's goals gave Atletico a beautiful start in the drizzling of Barcelona.
The home team came back impressively. Pedri brought them back to the game before a header from Pau Cubarsi, who was his first goal for the club, and Inigo Martinez made Barcelona turn 3-2 ahead.
Substitute Robert Lewandowski then added a fourth goal after Lamine Yamal's brilliant work in the 74th minute.
"I think we dominated for 75, 80 minutes. I'm very satisfied with this, how we played, how we got up. The mentality is fantastic."
"With the ball, this is the most important thing for me, I really like it. We are on the right track. So, the focus is the future and very positive."
"I'm happy for a lot of things, 95 percent of them, only 5 percent are not, and this is why we conceded four goals today. We have to work hard for that. Our job is to do it," said Flick.
While the draw may feel like a defeat to Barcelona, they are now unbeaten in 14 matches by 2025.
As many as 11 of them managed to win and only drew three times.
Apart from that, Flick also wanted to praise Atletico, who beat Barcelona as they met at La Liga at the Olympic Lluis Companys Stadium in December 2024, for their role in one of the games this season so far.
"We played against a fantastic team. Atletico were very strong and they put a lot of pressure in the last 10 minutes, bringing in new strikers and the strength they have, not easy to defend."
"I lost a little confidence in possession of the ball. We also always wanted to play attacking, score goals, but sometimes possession is good."
"In the end (the same thing) could also happen in the last 10 minutes. After the first two goals against us, we had to spend a lot of energy and maybe we had a bit of trouble in the last 10 minutes. We had to accept it," said Flick.
Barcelona and Atletico Madrid meet again in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals in Metropolitano, Madrid, on April 3, 2025 WIB.
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