This game started early – and ended early, too. By half-time Barcelona were 3-2 up at the Vicente Calderón, 4-2 up on aggregate and already into the semi-final of the Copa del Rey. It was not a good night for Atlético Madrid, who started the second half with 10 men, having had Gabi sent off at half time, and ended it with nine, after Mario Suárez was shown a red card.
Meanwhile, their full-back Cristian Ansaldi was in a police station somewhere and their midfielder Arda Turan threw his boot at a linesman.
Atlético had opened the scoring in the first minute, hope spreading around the stadium, but by the 45th it was over. Yet if the game was only alive in the first half, it was really alive: fast, frantic and wide open, the ball flying from one end to the other. It had everything, even a linesman knocking over a footballer with his flag. Jordi Alba tumbled and he was not the only one.
There were five goals and it defied analysis, right down to the fact that here was a team that scored two from superb, direct counterattacks, and another from a corner – and it wasn’t Atlético. If it did not make much sense, it did not make it any less enjoyable.
It all started at the very start. Again. Fernando Torres stepped away from two men to strike a low shot into the bottom corner away from Marc-André ter Stegen that gave Atlético the lead here and made it 1-1 on aggregate, which may not sound particularly remarkable except that when the ball hit the net, only 38 seconds had passed. This was getting ridiculous now: Torres had scored 46 seconds into the first half and 38 seconds into the second half against Real Madrid in the last round; now he had done it again. That was only his third shot since rejoining Atlético and all three have ended up in the net.
The Calderón roared and Atlético did too. The away goals rule meant they still needed another, and they kept coming forward. Soon Torres was dashing down the left wing, sliding in to tackle Gerard Piqué. Barcelona, feeling the pressure brought to bear upon them, bypassed it as best they could by becoming more direct. And then, just eight minutes in, Neymar equalised. Leo Messi and Luis Suárez combined, the Uruguayan turning a brilliant pass with the outside of his foot into the path of Neymar, racing beyond the defence, into the area on the right, to finish low into the far corner.
That might have ended it, and so might another run for Neymar who raced through from the halfway line only to be blown for offside. The pass this time had been from Ter Stegen, the goalkeeper, and it was perfect.
But Atlético rebelled, their fans too: the roar was deafening, they still believed this was possible. All the more so when it was they who scored next as Juanfran won a penalty for a foul from Javier Mascherano that might not have been a foul and was not in the area. Raúl Garcia scored from the spot: 2-1 on the night, 2-2 on aggregate.
Still there was more. Suárez tumbled seeking a penalty and was rightly denied. Ivan Rakitic had a shot that was blocked and, from the resulting corner Sergio Busquets leapt high to head. 2-2. The header hit João Miranda and went into his own net.
The roar was not so loud this time; if there were doubts now, needing two more, they were natural enough. And then it really did end. Atlético’s fans were still shouting for a penalty when Barcelona scored again. Antoine Griezmann’s shot was blocked by Jordi Alba; the shot was on target until it hit Alba’s arm but there was no penalty and the punishment was about to get worse.
Suddenly, in a flash, Barcelona were away. Messi was sprinting up the right. His ball across the six-yard box and beyond the far post was, somehow, turned back by Alba who had covered 80 yards and gone from perpetrator to provider in a few seconds. Neymar reached the ball and tiptoed marvellously past the keeper to make it 3-2.
When the teams came out for the second half, the sensation that it was all over increased. Griezmann had been replaced by Saúl Ñíguez and, totting them up, Atlético’s fans then realised that their team were down to 10 men. As the teams had gone off at half-time there had been confrontations among players and staff, and words were exchanged between players and officials too, which may have continued down the tunnel. Gabi had, it transpired, been sent off at half-time. “Hands up, this is a robbery!” the fans chanted.
Arda Turan then threw his boot in the direction of a linesman and was booked. It then emerged that the full-back Cristian Ansaldi had been arrested on his way to the ground following an exchange of views with a police officer.
The anger continued; tackles flew in, cheered by Atlético fans, who knew that they would no longer progress. There was a bad miss from Messi that ultimately did not matter and very little football; this game had finished at half time.
Now it was just about seeing it out in safety. For some that was not guaranteed. Neymar departed to whistles and boos. The supporters here thought he had been at the heart of some of the confrontations in this leg and in the first. More importantly, he had scored the two goals too. There was little that could be done about the score, but a few scores were settled.
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