The last time Barcelona visited the Riyadh Air Metropolitano for a Copa del Rey semifinal, they survived a 4-4 first leg that felt more like a heavyweight boxing match than a football game. Eight goals, three lead changes, and a second leg in which Barcelona ground out a 1-0 victory to book their place in the final, where they beat Real Madrid 3-2 to lift their record-extending 32nd Copa del Rey title. That semifinal became one of the defining moments of Barcelona’s 2024-25 season, a night that proved Hansi Flick’s team had the composure and quality to navigate the most hostile environments in Spanish football. Twelve months later, Barcelona return to the same stadium, against the same opponent, in the same competition, with the same ambition. But this version of Barcelona is better. And the player leading the charge is doing things that invite comparisons no 18-year-old should have to bear.
Lamine Yamal has scored in five consecutive matches. According to multiple sources tracking Barcelona’s statistical history, the last player to achieve that particular feat in a Barcelona shirt was Lionel Messi. When your name appears in the same sentence as Messi’s at the Camp Nou, the weight of expectation increases exponentially. But Yamal, with 15 goals and 11 assists across 30 appearances this season, is not just surviving the comparison. He is thriving under it, and his form heading into Thursday’s semifinal first leg at the Metropolitano could be the difference between Barcelona’s treble dreams advancing and Atletico Madrid ending them.
A Metropolitano Ghost Story
Barcelona’s relationship with Atletico Madrid in cup competition is long, dramatic, and deeply personal. The two clubs have faced each other 249 times in official competition since their first meeting in April 1925, and Barcelona hold the historical advantage with 113 victories to Atletico’s 79, with 57 draws. But the Metropolitano has never been a comfortable destination for visiting teams, and Diego Simeone’s Atletico, regardless of their league position or form, always seem to find an extra gear against Barcelona.
Last December’s La Liga meeting between the sides ended 3-1 in Barcelona’s favor, a result that suggested Flick’s team had figured out Simeone’s defensive puzzles. But league fixtures and cup ties operate on different emotional frequencies. The Metropolitano’s atmosphere in a knockout match is one of the most intimidating in European football, and Simeone’s ability to prepare his team for specific opponents in high-stakes situations is one of the defining skills of his managerial career. He has lost semifinals before and knows how they sting. Last season’s exit at Barcelona’s hands left a mark that Atletico will be desperate to avenge.
“This is a semifinal, a different game, a different competition,” Simeone told reporters in his pre-match press conference. Atletico sit third in La Liga, behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, and their form has been inconsistent by Simeone’s standards. But the Argentine has built a career on maximizing his team’s output in precisely these kinds of matches, and he has a track record of absorbing pressure from more talented opponents and punishing them on the counter.
Yamal’s Five-Game Streak and What It Actually Means
The trajectory within the streak tells the real story. His five goals came against increasingly difficult opposition, stretching from Oviedo through Copenhagen, Elche, Albacete, and Mallorca. At his current pace, he would comfortably surpass his previous best of 18 goals and 21 assists in 55 appearances last season, and he is doing it in roughly half the matches. But the numbers only tell part of the story. What has changed about Yamal’s game during this streak is not just the finishing. It is the authority. He is making decisions in the final third with the certainty of a veteran, picking the right moment to shoot, the right moment to create, and the right moment to simply beat his marker and take the game by the throat.
The Messi comparison is impossible to avoid, and for once, it does not feel like hyperbole. When SuperSport and World Soccer Talk reported that Yamal’s consecutive scoring run matched a feat last achieved by Messi at Barcelona, the reaction was not surprise but recognition. Anyone watching Yamal play right now can see the parallels: the low center of gravity, the acceleration through tight spaces, the instinct for the decisive moment. He is not Messi, and he will never be Messi, but he is the closest thing Barcelona have produced to that level of individual brilliance since the original left.
The streak has coincided with Barcelona’s resurgence after a brief wobble earlier in the campaign. The team has won their last six matches, and Yamal’s goals have been integral to five of those victories. His importance to Flick’s system cannot be overstated: when Yamal is in this kind of form, he pulls defensive attention toward the right flank and opens space for teammates across the pitch. Pedri benefits. Robert Lewandowski benefits. The entire attacking structure expands when Yamal is a genuine scoring threat rather than just a creative one.
Barcelona’s Missing Pieces and the Depth Question
The one cloud hanging over Barcelona’s trip to the Metropolitano is the injury list. Marcus Rashford, who joined from Manchester United and has provided valuable rotation minutes, is out after sustaining a knee knock during Saturday’s 3-0 win over Mallorca. Frenkie de Jong is listed as doubtful with a groin issue, and if the Dutchman cannot go, teenager Marc Bernal would likely step into the central midfield role. Raphinha has been training separately from the group for the past week, dealing with an overload that has limited his ability to run and change direction at full intensity.
For a team chasing three trophies, depth management is everything, and the timing of these absences is not ideal. Flick has navigated injury problems throughout the season with a mix of squad rotation and tactical flexibility, but losing Rashford and potentially de Jong for a semifinal at the Metropolitano forces him to make choices about where to allocate his resources. The Copa del Rey is important, but La Liga remains the priority, and the Champions League knockout stages loom in the coming weeks.
The saving grace is that Barcelona’s core remains intact. Yamal is fit and in the form of his life. Lewandowski continues to score with the efficiency that has defined his late-career renaissance. Pedri’s return from injury earlier in the season stabilized the midfield and gave Flick the creative hub his system demands. If de Jong cannot play, Bernal has shown enough quality in his limited appearances to suggest he can handle the occasion, even at 17 years old. Barcelona’s academy continues to produce players who are ready for moments like this, and Flick’s willingness to trust young players is one of the reasons this team feels different from the tentative, transition-era Barcelona of recent seasons.
Simeone’s Atletico: The Opponent Nobody Wants in a Knockout Tie
Atletico’s season has been a study in inconsistency. Third in La Liga and lacking the relentless form that characterized their title challenge under Simeone in previous years, they have nonetheless produced performances of genuine quality when the occasion demands it. Antoine Griezmann remains the creative fulcrum, and Ademola Lookman’s arrival has added a dimension of unpredictability to Atletico’s attack that they lacked last season. The Premier League title race may be Arsenal’s to lose, but in Spain, it is Atletico who consistently serve as the spoiler for Barcelona’s domestic ambitions.
Simeone’s injury concerns are real but manageable. Johnny Cardoso is out with a muscle injury, Pablo Barrios remains sidelined with a thigh problem, and Marc Pubill is doubtful with illness. But the spine of Atletico’s team, Jan Oblak in goal, the defensive structure that Simeone has drilled into this squad over more than a decade, and Griezmann’s intelligence in the final third, is available and ready.
The tactical battle between Flick and Simeone is one of the most fascinating stylistic contrasts in European football. Flick’s Barcelona press high, play through midfield with speed and precision, and rely on individual quality in the final third to break down defenses. Simeone’s Atletico absorb pressure, defend in a compact, disciplined block, and look to exploit transitions with direct, incisive attacks. The question is whether Barcelona can be patient enough to break down Atletico’s defensive structure without leaving themselves exposed to the counter-attacks that Simeone’s teams execute better than almost anyone in the game.
The Prediction
Barcelona win this tie, but they do not win it at the Metropolitano. The first leg finishes 1-1, a result that reflects the controlled intensity of both teams in a semifinal where the second leg at Camp Nou looms large. Yamal scores. Of course he does. But Atletico, disciplined and dangerous as always, find an equalizer through Griezmann or Lookman on a counter-attack that punishes one of Barcelona’s high-line moments. The second leg in early March is where Barcelona’s superior quality tells, and they advance to defend their Copa del Rey title.
The broader picture is what makes this semifinal meaningful beyond the 90 minutes. Barcelona are chasing a treble: La Liga, Copa del Rey, and Champions League. They have the squad depth, the form, and the 18-year-old generational talent to make it happen. But every treble chase passes through a moment where the dream is genuinely threatened, and the Metropolitano on a Thursday night, against Simeone’s Atletico, in a Copa del Rey semifinal, is exactly that kind of moment. What Barcelona do with it will tell us whether this team is genuinely special or merely very good. There is a difference, and Yamal, with Messi’s shadow finally starting to feel like a tailwind rather than a burden, might be the one who proves it.
Sources
- Al Jazeera: Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona, Copa del Rey team news and preview
- Barca Blaugranes: Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona, Copa del Rey preview and lineups
- World Soccer Talk: Lamine Yamal reaches goalscoring feat last seen with Lionel Messi
- SuperSport: Lamine Yamal is in top scoring form, five games in a row with a goal
