Dazed and confused, at the final whistle one question got asked repeatedly: what the hell happened? The answer was simple even if the analysis wasn't: pretty much everything happened. Fernando Torres scored after 38 seconds and Neymar scored after eight minutes. There were 11 yellow cards, five goals, two penalties and two reds, not that anyone realised: the first of them whipped out and waved in the players' tunnel at half time. Jordi Alba was felled by a flag. And Arda Turan threw his boot at the linesman. Oh, and Barcelona went through to the semifinal of the Copa del Rey.
And all that in under an hour. Arda sent his boot flying just three minutes into the second half. He didn't get sent off. By then, Gabi had gone and so had Antoine Griezmann. Diego Simeone had taken him off; it would take Luis Enrique a little longer to take off Neymar. He survived another 25 minutes; "survived" is definitely the word. It was already 3-2 to Barcelona, 4-2 on aggregate, at half-time. "We have to play every minute as if it was the last," Simeone had said before the game yet the last minute was the 46th, with the players heading to the dressing room. Gabi's red card ended it, Simeone said.
"In the second half we played the way you saw: with no ambition to attack. We did what we think is right for the future of the team," Simeone added.
There was little that could be done about the score now, but a few scores were settled and much happened. It wasn't the same, though. The first half had been "fabulous," Simeone said.
He was right too: Atlético versus Barcelona was a game not to be missed; just don't tell Cristian Ansaldi that. He had intended to go but ended up spending most of the night down at the police station instead. The Atletico Madrid full-back, unavailable on Wednesday night due to injury, was arrested when he tried to pass a police road block on the way to the ground and got into an altercation with an officer, which allegedly ended with him catching the policeman's hand as he went to shut his car door. He left the police station just after one a.m. having missed all the fun.
And now, the morning after the night before, it's time to pick through the rubble.
Fernando Torres, supersonic
Fernando Torres scored 46 seconds into the first half against Real Madrid in the last round. He scored again 38 seconds into the second half against Real Madrid in the last round. Here, he scored after 38 seconds against Barcelona. Three goals in two minutes and two seconds and from only three shots. Really.
Torres' goal last night came from his third shot since joining Atlético (a statistic that may actually concern Simeone almost as much as it pleases him) and he fell to the floor, kissing the turf. Seven and a half years later, the Kid was home. He'd knocked out Real Madrid; now his goal had swiftly put Atlético on course to knock out Barcelona.
The world turned upside down
They scored three goals at the Vicente Calderón: two came from quick, direct counter-attacks, springing from deep and racing into space while the other came via a header from a corner. Nothing unusual there, except that "they" is not Atlético Madrid; it was FC Barcelona. And there could have been more too: Neymar ran clean through, only to be (wrongly?) pulled back for offside. This was a game where the roles were reversed, the styles swapped.
Although the idea that Barcelona never played on the counter-attack with Pep Guardiola is wrong, he did sometimes appear to be on a mission to play as many midfielders as he could: the World Club Cup final, where Barça lined up in a kind of 3-7-0 formation, was the ultimate expression. Here, Barcelona played almost without midfielders: Andres Iniesta in particular could only watch the ball fly over his head. His form this season and the way he fits into a new side with a new style is a significant issue to be tackled.
Playing more directly isn't necessarily a bad plan when you have Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez up front. Besides, there were other reasons too: the pitch, which Simeone had warned was in bad condition, was bouncing up "like a rabbit" in Luis Enrique's words, and Atlético pressed high, pushing Barcelona back. That may have made them uncomfortable but it also meant that the release, a longer ball to break the lines of pressure, opened up the counter-attack. It was striking just how high Atlético's defence pressed; when Neymar was sent through, he had run from the halfway line. The pass, by the way, had come from Marc-Andre ter Stegen and it was impeccable.
Even after Atlético scored they pressed high when, at 1-1 on aggregate, they might have expected to play less openly, defending deeper and looking to counter-attack. A word for here Jordi Alba, too: he blocked Griezmann's goal-bound shot near his own six-yard box with his hand and then reached Messi's pass to provide the assist for Neymar to score the third 11 seconds later and 90 metres away.
Barca's personality reveals itself
The photo that appeared on Twitter of the Barca players celebrating the victory on their way home was eloquent; the fact that so many players posted the very same picture even more so. This was a big victory and one that will help bring them together -- the "team that is united wins games" idea sometimes needs inverting -- while also revealing a competitive personality that is a significant advance on last season.
Last year, Barcelona played Atletico Madrid six times and did not beat them. They were knocked out of the Champions League by Atlético, lost the league title to them in their own stadium and only scored three goals against them all year. They never looked like winning in any of those games and hardly looked like competing.
Now they have beaten Atlético three times in three weeks, scoring seven times. Twice they have put three past Simeone's side. On the final day of last season, Barcelona's 1-1 draw with Atlético Madrid saw them relinquish the title with little more than a shrug, as if it was somehow inevitable. There wasn't even much protest when Messi had a goal disallowed that would have made them champions. It was as if they were resigned to it. Not now. Now they are rebelling.
Neymar's mischief
The Brazilian had been involved in confrontations in the first leg and was again involved in the second leg. At one point, Juanfran held seven fingers up to him, an attempt to wind him up over Brazil's humiliating defeat against Germany at the World Cup (because Spain were so much better). He and Fernando Torres had gone for Neymar at the half-time whistle, too. "Neymar does some things that there is no need for, especially when you're winning," Gabi said later.
"If Neymar carries on like this, one day he will have a problem," said Cani. He could have had problems here. Neymar departed the first game with a bloodied ankle; he could have left Wednesday night's with worse. "It was getting a bit ugly so we took Neymar off," Luis Enrique said. "Normal tackles are one thing, but it seemed to be becoming something else." Every time he got the ball, the whistles grew; every time he was taken out, there were cheers. But Neymar never hid; in fact, he grew. Instead, he kept taking people on, kept asking for the ball and kept taking responsibility; the more others lost control, the more in control he appeared.
There was an element of winding opponents up in that but Sergio Busquets defended Neymar, insisting that flicks and tricks are just the way he plays. And the bottom line, apart from asking why he shouldn't bamboozle those who try to kick him or even give a bit back, is that he was brilliant. And brave. He scored two goals, the second beautifully taken, and now has 21 this season. For much of this game, Neymar had the ball. He also had balls.
How about that ref...!
After the game, Gabi claimed that he had got his second yellow card and thus been sent off at half time for saying: "Jesús, it was a penalty and a red card." Note the accent on the ú. This was no insult and no blasphemy either; Jesús is the referee's name. It might have been hard to believe Gabi's version of events except that the referee's report seemed to confirm it. Gabi had been sent off for pointing his finger and making an "apreciación técnica." And right there, a brilliant cup tie ended.
Incidentally, substitutions are announced at stadiums so shouldn't red cards be too? Gabi was sent off at half-time, down the tunnel and out of sight, but no-one knew. (And, yes, that includes journalists). It took a few minutes for fans to realise that Atlético had started the second half with ten men. When the penny did finally drop, the chants began. "Hands up! This is a robbery." It was about then that Arda Turan threw his boot at the linesman, an act which, let's be honest, mostly made everyone laugh.
Turan only got a yellow card. The referee's report says that he threw that boot off the pitch -- not at the linesman -- as a sign of disagreement with a decision. And the referee's report is always right... even when it's wrong.
