Diego Simeone ridiculed Lamine Yamal as his Atletico Madrid facet blitzed Barcelona 4-0 at dwelling of their Copa del Rey semi-final first leg.
The artful Argentinian held up three fingers on the 18-year-old after Ademola Lookman scored to make it 3-0, persevering with his fantastic begin for the capital facet.
Certainly, Simeone loved that one a lot that he went operating down the touchline to rejoice in a primary half that noticed Atletico blow away Barca with all 4 objectives.
It’s a pummelling that each one however places Atletico within the remaining, the place they’ll face Actual Sociedad or Athletic Bilbao except Barcelona obtain a minor miracle at dwelling subsequent month. Atletico’s final trophy was the LaLiga title again in 2021.
Barcelona’s frustrations have been solely worsened when their solely ‘purpose’ of the evening, scrambled in by Pau Cubarsi, was confirmed as offside after an eight-minute VAR verify.
The delay was attributable to a failure within the semi-automatic offside know-how as a result of ‘excessive participant density’ of the state of affairs, that means officers had to attract the strains manually.
Diego Simeone appeared to mock Lamine Yamal by holding up three fingers as Atletico Madrid went 3-0 up towards Barcelona
Atletico tore aside Barca 4-0 in Madrid within the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final
Barcelona had a purpose controversially dominated out by VAR and a person despatched off on a dire evening
In any case, Atletico have been good worth for his or her win with objectives from Antoine Griezmann, Lookman, and Julian Alvarez following an personal purpose from Eric Garcia.
Garcia’s evening bought worse after 85 minutes as he was despatched off with a straight crimson card for a late, crunching deal with which worn out Alex Baena.
‘I believe our individuals want these events,’ Simeone mentioned afterwards.
‘It is clear, we all know the rival we’ll face. We will not surrender. There is a lengthy technique to go till the return leg however in the present day we had an excellent pleasure for our individuals, who deserve it.’
Rival boss Hansi Flick, who has suffered his worst defeat since his newbie teaching days 21 years in the past, mentioned: ‘We did not play nicely. We have now to go to the second sport. It will likely be very troublesome however we’re going to battle it.
‘We talked at half-time concerning the completely different conditions and that we should always do higher. We did not see the crew I wish to see within the first half.
‘I ask why it’s offside. I do not know what they’ve determined. We have now to simply accept it however I do not agree.’
Barcelona’s solely comfort is that this loss got here within the absence of many vital gamers: Raphinha, Gavi, Pedri, Marcus Rashford, and Andreas Christensen.
Hansi Flick suffered the worst defeat of his skilled profession however will get the possibility to drag off a mirarcle within the second leg subsequent month
Atletico will take confidence from this for the remainder of the season, significantly their Champions League marketing campaign, after an up-and-down run of type.
They’re 13 factors behind Barcelona within the LaLiga title race and face Membership Brugge within the Champions League play-offs this month.
In latest video games they’ve thrashed Mallorca 3-0, Barcelona 4-0, and Actual Betis 5-0, however they’ve additionally misplaced to Betis, been defeated by Bodo/Glimt, and drawn with Galatasaray and Levante.
Lookman has made a flying begin following his £30.3million transfer from Atalanta.
The previous Everton, Leicester, Fulham, and Watford attacker has scored two objectives and supplied two assists in three video games since becoming a member of this month.
Simeone just lately mentioned of the Nigerian: ‘Lookman is completely different from all of the gamers we’ve got, particularly in one-on-one conditions, however he additionally has associative play.
‘His profile permits us to make use of him in several positions, and his impression on the crew was superb.
‘He felt comfy, and hopefully we can assist him change into an excellent higher footballer, simply as he can assist us develop as a crew.’
