Barcelona – Atletico Madrid Preview

Barcelona hosts Atletico Madrid at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in a first match from the 1/2-finals of the Spanish Copa del Rey. Let’s see what we can tell you about this clash in our best soccer predictions today. Are you ready to remain with us about this one?

This is arguably the big spectacle of the Copa del Rey 1/2-finals this season. Barca will host Atletico in the first match while Diego Simeone’s team will do it in the second one at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano. For Los Colchoneros this is a chance to get a good result in Barcelona and then finish the job at home. But Hansi Flick’s Barca is not a team that forgives any mistakes – they can be deadly when in their best form.

Right now Los Cules are enjoying a solid run of five consecutive wins in all competitions. Barcelona are also unbeaten since December when it was Atletico Madrid who beat them at the Lluis Companys.

On Saturday night Barca kept their top position in La Liga with an important 2-0 win against Las Palmas away from home. It was a 0-0 draw at halftime, but Hansi Flick made a crucial change – he replaced Fermin Lopez with Dani Olmo. It was Olmo who scored the decisive opening goal of the match while Ferran Torres finished the job for the Catalans.

After his crucial appearance against Las Palmas, Dani Olmo is expected to start against Atletico. The Spanish international had some injury problems this season, but he remains a key player for Barca. Most likely Flick will choose between him and Gavi for the starting eleven while Fermin will sit on the bench. But one thing is for sure – Barcelona could use Olmo’s attacking skills to penetrate Atletico Madrid’s excellent defense.

Eric Garcia started as a partner for Pau Cubarsi in defense against Las Palmas, but now someone between Inigo Martinez and Ronald Araujo will replace him for Tuesday. Inigo played the majority of the season so far, so most likely he will start alongside the young Cubarsi.

Hansi Flick could make another change against Atletico as well. Frenkie de Jong is another player who shall return in the starting eleven on Tuesday night. The Dutch midfielder started from the bench against Las Palmas as he was replaced by Marc Casado. But we can say that Frenkie won his place in the starting eleven again – he shall replace Casado in the line-up, alongside Pedri.

Atletico Madrid also achieved an important win in La Liga in their last game – 3-0 against Valencia at the Mestalla. Julian Alvarez scored twice in the first half of the match while Angel Correa added one more in the last few minutes. For Los Colchoneros it was another crucial performancei n the league and a solid preparation for facing Barca in the Copa del Rey.

Just like Hansi Flick, Diego Simeone is expected to make some changes in his starting eleven against Barcelona. Javi Galan could return on the left-back position instead of Cesar Azpilicueta. Galan was a starter during the 1-1 draw with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu and he did well. Meanwhile Rodrigo Riquelme could take Giuliano Simeone’s place in the

line-up while Conor Gallagher and Jose Gimenez are also option for the Argentine manager.

What Simeone has to decide is which players to use in attack against Barcelona. Once again he started with Antoine Griezmann and Julian Alvarez upfront against Valencia, but now Alexander Sørloth is an option for the game against Barca. Sørloth is the player who secured Atleti’s win against Barcelona in La Liga a few months ago.

Julian Alvarez and Antoine Griezmann are the creative force of this Atletico side at the moment. The former French international didn’t score against Valencia, but he assisted for one of Alvarez’s two goals. Conor Gallagher also provided an assist for one of Atleti’s goals at the Mestalla.

Julian Alvarez is the Atletico Madrid’s top scorer since the beginning of the 2024/25 season. The World Cup winner has 19 goals in 38 matches for the capital club since the start of the season. In the Copa del Rey he’s also lethal – four goals in five matches.

We don’t expect to see Diego Simeone changing his preferred 4-4-2 formation against Barcelona. These tactics give Los Colchoneros more stability on the pitch as the wingers are helping the fullbacks all the time.

That’s the best soccer predictions today for the Copa del Rey 1/2-finals clash between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in the Catalan capital. One of these two teams will reach the final of the competition and let’s be honest – this is an amazing clash from the 1/2-finals. We can’t even say that one of these two teams is a favorite – it looks like a 50:50 clash to us. But let’s see what’s going to happen.