Barcelona and Atletico Madrid draw 4-4 in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal.

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid both rallied from two goals down in a frantic 4-4 draw in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Catalonia, Spain.

Atletico scored twice in the first six minutes before conceding four unanswered goals and coming back to even the match with goals in the final 10 minutes, including the equaliser by substitute Alexander Sorloth three minutes into stoppage time on Tuesday.

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Barcelona saw Atletico jump to an early lead, with goals by Julian Alvarez in the first minute and Antoine Griezmann in the sixth, but the hosts tied the game by the 21st minute thanks to goals two minutes apart by Pedri and Pau Cubarsi.

The Catalan club took a 3-2 lead into halftime after Iñigo Martínez scored in the 41st. Robert Lewandowski increased the lead in the 74th.

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Soccer Football - Copa del Rey - Semi Final - First Leg - FC Barcelona v Atletico Madrid - Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, Barcelona, Spain - February 25, 2025 Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez scores their first goal REUTERS/Albert Gea
Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez opened the scoring on the night [Albert Gea/Reuters]

Atletico pulled closer with Marcos Llorente in the 84th and Sorloth got the equaliser from close range.

The second leg will be at Atletico’s Metropolitano Stadium in April.

The winner will play either Real Madrid or Real Sociedad, which will play their first-leg match on Wednesday in Basque Country.

Barcelona last won the competition in 2021, and Atletico in 2013.

Atletico had beaten Barcelona 2-1 in the Spanish league when the teams last met in December.

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Until the semifinal stage, the Copa’s knockout rounds were played in single-elimination games.

Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski scores during a Spanish Copa del Rey, or King's Cup, the semi-final soccer match between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski looked to have sealed the match with his side’s fourth goal [Joan Monfort/AP]

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ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final: India have ‘no advantage’ over New Zealand | Cricket News

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India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak blasts back at assertion that India’s Champions Trophy hopes boosted by Dubai venue.

India playing all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai was a pre-tournament decision, and talk of it giving India an unfair advantage is baseless, the team’s batting coach says as he blasts back against the criticism.

Rohit Sharma’s India face New Zealand in the title clash on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium, where the tournament favourites have been unbeaten in their four matches.

India refused to tour hosts Pakistan in the eight-nation tournament due to political tensions and were given Dubai as their venue in the United Arab Emirates.

“The draw that happened, it happened before,” batting coach Sitanshu Kotak told reporters before the final. “After India winning four matches, if people feel that there is an advantage, then I don’t know what to say about it.”

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The tournament’s tangled schedule with teams flying in and out of the UAE from Pakistan while India have stayed put has been controversial.

South Africa batsman David Miller said “it was not an ideal situation” for his team to fly to Dubai to wait on India’s semifinal opponent and then fly back to Lahore in less than 24 hours.

Even nominal hosts Pakistan had to jump on a jet and fly to Dubai to play India rather than face them on home soil.

India's Virat Kohli celebrates after scoring fifty runs during the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal cricket match between India and Australia at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)
India’s Virat Kohli salutes the crowd in Dubai after achieving a century against Australia in the semifinal [Christopher Pike/AP]

The pitches have been vastly different in the two countries. Pakistan tracks produced big totals in contrast to the slow and turning decks of the Dubai stadium.

“End of the day, I think in a game you have to play good cricket every day when you turn up,” Kotak said. “So the only thing they [critics] may say is that we play here. But that is how the draw is.”

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“So nothing else can happen in that. It is not that after coming here, they changed something, and we got an advantage,” he added.

India have been the team to beat after they topped Group A, in which they faced New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They then beat Australia in the first semifinal.

New Zealand, led by Mitchell Santner, lost the last group game to India by 44 runs before they beat South Africa in the second semifinal in Lahore.

India's Varun Chakravarthy, centre, celebrate the wicket of New Zealand's Glenn Phillips , right, during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri )
India’s Varun Chakravarthy, centre, celebrates the wicket of New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips , right, in Dubai during the final Champions Trophy group-stage match [Altaf Qadri/AP]

Kotak said the previous result between the two teams will have no bearing on their mindset going into the final.

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“That depends how the New Zealand team thinks, but I think we should not think that,” Kotak said.

“We should just try and turn up and play a good game of cricket because there is no use thinking about the last match.”

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said they are not too worried about India’s advantage.

“I mean, look, the decision around that’s out of our hands,” Stead said.

“So it’s not something we worry about too much. India have got to play all their games here in Dubai. But as you said, we have had a game here, and we’ll learn very quickly from that experience there as well.”

“And if we’re good enough to beat India on Sunday, then I’m sure we’ll be very, very happy,” he added.

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