MADRID (AP) — Atletico Madrid just barely held on to its first-leg advantage against defending champion Barcelona in the Copa del Rey on Tuesday, advancing to its first Copa final in 13 years despite a 3-0 loss to the Catalan club.
Atletico advanced 4-3 on aggregate thanks to its 4-0 win in the first leg last month in Madrid.
Diego Simeone’s team will play in the final for the first time since it won its 10th Copa trophy in the 2012-13 season.
The second leg of the other semifinal between Real Sociedad and Basque Country rival Athletic Bilbao will be on Wednesday. Sociedad won 1-0 at Athletic last month.
The final will be in April in Seville.
Barcelona saw itself in a hole after being trounced in the first half of the first leg last month, conceding all four goals before the break at the Metropolitano stadium.
Barcelona came out strong at home Tuesday, scoring with Marc Bernal in the 29th minute and Raphinha converting a penalty kick in first-half stoppage time. Bernal added the third in the 72nd, leaving the hosts one goal shy from evening the series.
“We knew it was going to be a tough match, it’s not easy to overcome a 4-0 defeat,” Raphinha said. “But I’m proud of the team. We gave everything we had from the start. We leave disappointed because we wanted to be in the final, and I think we deserved it after the game that we played.”
Barcelona kept pressing but Atletico’s stout defense held on.
“Maybe it wasn’t our best match, but it was a game of 180 minutes,” Atletico goalkeeper Juan Musso said. “They had everything going their way but we suffered when we had to suffer. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but in the end we made it to the final.”
Barcelona lost defender Jules Koundé to an injury 13 minutes into the match. He was replaced by Alejandro Balde, who in the second half asked to be substituted as well. Forward Robert Lewandowski missed the match because of an injury.
Barcelona was looking to repeat as Copa champion after defeating Real Madrid in last year’s final.
Barcelona is the Spanish league leader. It has a four-point leader over second-place Real Madrid. Atletico is third, 13 points behind Barcelona.
Both Barcelona and Atletico are in the round of 16 of the Champions League.
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