Barcelona experienced a true nightmare on their trip to Madrid to face Atlético in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals. After a completely unrecognizable first half, the Catalans went into halftime trailing 4-0, and despite improvements in the second 45 minutes, they could not reduce the deficit. In the end, coach Hansi Flick acknowledged the poor performance and found something positive. "We didn't play as a team. And when that happens, you don't play well. The players were very distant, and there were failures in pressing. But sometimes it's good to learn lessons like this," he analyzed, without giving up on reaching the final. "We will fight. There are two halves of 45 minutes to try to score two goals in each of them." Despite the heavy defeat, the German criticized the refereeing, especially regarding the disallowed goal using VAR early in the second half due to a marginal offside. "What can I tell you? How long did we wait? Seven minutes? Seven minutes looking for something? For me, it's not offside. Moreover, they disallow the goal and don't tell us anything. There's no communication, and I still don't understand why the offside was called," he stated.
Barcelona Copa del Rey remains central to this story.
Barcelona Copa del Rey remains central to this story.
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