Hansi Flick watched his Barcelona side get torn apart in the first half at the Metropolitano and admitted they’d been handed a “big lesson.” The problem? It was a 4-0 hiding in a Copa del Rey semi final first leg and the lesson might already be terminal.
Atletico Madrid were utterly rampant before the break, smashing four past the shellshocked holders without reply. Diego Simeone’s men were sharper, hungrier, and absolutely ruthless. Barca? Nowhere to be seen.
“We didn’t play well in the first half as a team, we didn’t play like a team,” Flick said afterwards, the frustration dripping. “The distance between everyone was too long and we didn’t press how we wanted.”
Too right. The La Liga leaders were cut open time and again. The midfield vanished. The defence panicked. Atletico swarmed and feasted.
“In the first 45 minutes we were handed a big lesson,” Flick continued. “Sometimes it’s good to get that in the right moment. Maybe today is the right moment.”
Maybe. But lessons are only useful if you actually learn from them. Barca were better after the break could hardly be worse but the damage was already catastrophic. One goal would’ve been a lifeline. Instead, they drew a blank.
VAR RAGE
And then there was the Pau Cubarsi fiasco. The young defender thought he’d pulled one back in the second half. The ball was in the net. The away end erupted. Then VAR spent an eternity dissecting frames, and the goal was wiped out for offside.
Nobody had a clue why.
“It’s a mess, it’s a mess like that,” Flick fumed. “They have to wait I don’t know how many minutes, was it seven minutes? Oh come on. They found something in the seven minutes? Okay.”
The German was visibly baffled. So was everyone else. No clear explanation, no communication, just a decision that felt arbitrary and left Barca even deeper in the mire.
“For me, when I saw this situation it was clear no offside,” Flick added. “But at the end maybe they could see something different, but tell us. There was no communication and this is so bad here.”
He’s not wrong. In an era of high definition replays and pitchside microphones, leaving managers and fans completely in the dark is indefensible.
The second leg awaits
Barca trail 4-0. They’re at home in three weeks. They’ve got Messi’s old number 10 shirt gathering dust and a squad that just got psychologically disembowelled in Madrid.
“We have one game more and we will fight to win that,” Flick insisted.
Fighting is one thing. Overturning a four goal deficit against a Simeone side that knows how to defend is another entirely. This tie is as good as over.
The bigger worry? This wasn’t a one off. Barca have looked fragile away from home against top sides for months. The Copa exit and it will be an exit raises serious questions about their ability to go the distance in the league and Champions League.
Lesson learned? We’ll see. But the exam paper just got a whole lot harder.
