Atlético Madrid became the latest to progress to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, defeating Sevilla narrowly 1-0. Los Indios could have taken the lead as early as the 26th minute, but Antoine Griezmann, taking a penalty kick, slipped and shot over. Memphis Depay corrected the Frenchman’s hesitation less than a quarter of an hour before the end. The Madrid team made it to such an advanced stage of the domestic cup after seven years.
Both teams have earned the label of one of the best in Spain in recent years, but only one of them has been terrifying this season. This was doubly true for Atlético in the Estadio Metropolitano, where they played 14 matches and won 13 of them. On the other hand, Sevilla’s season so far has been defined by the past weekend, during which the Andalusians played against Girona and suffered a humiliating 1:5 debacle.
The match did not start at a very high pace, so there were a lot of illegal tackles and inaccurate passes in the final phase. It wasn’t until the 24th minute that there was more excitement in front of the Los Hispalenses goal, after Marcao fouled Nahuel Molina in the box. However, the offered opportunity was not converted by Griezmann, who slipped during the execution of the penalty and sent the ball high above. Since then, the picture of the game has not changed much and the situation remained goalless even after Rodrigo de Paulo’s free kick, which narrowly missed the space between the three posts of Orjan Nyland.
After seven minutes of the second half, Griezmann could have corrected his penalty miss, but his impressive acrobatic attempt did not end up behind the Norwegian goalkeeper. The goal silence was finally broken by substitute Depay, when in the 79th minute he found an accurate pass from Ángel Correa in the small area and delivered the ball into the net.
A few minutes later, Sergio Ramos appeared out of nowhere in a huge opportunity, but the former Real Madrid player missed the goal in a slide. The match offered a heart-breaking conclusion, as head referee Jill Manzano first awarded a penalty in favor of the visitors in the set-up, only to revoke it after watching the video.
Sevilla also came to the last thing that made them happy in the current season, as they were eliminated from the Spanish Cup. Atlético is waiting for the two semi-final matches to be played in February.
