\n
Atl\u00e9tico Madrid narrowly preserved their Copa del Rey first-leg advantage against defending champions Barcelona on Tuesday, reaching their first Copa final in 13 years despite losing 3-0 to the Catalan club. Atl\u00e9tico won the first leg 4-0 in Madrid last month to move up 4-3 on aggregate.<\/p>\n
Diego Simeone’s side will be playing in their first final since winning their 10th Copa Trophy in the 2012-13 season.<\/p>\n
The second leg of the other semi-final between Real Sociedad and Basque rivals Athletic Bilbao will take place on Wednesday. Sociedad won 1-0 against Athletic last month.<\/p>\n
The final will be held in Seville in April.<\/h2>\n
Barcelona found themselves in a hole after conceding all four goals in the first half of last month’s first leg before the break at the Metropolitano Stadium.<\/p>\n
Barcelona continued their good form at home on Tuesday, with Marc Bernal scoring in the 29th minute and Rafinha converting a penalty in first-half stoppage time. Bernal added his third goal in the 72nd minute, putting the hosts one goal away from ending the series.<\/p>\n
“We knew it was going to be a tough game. It’s not easy to overcome a 4-0 loss,” Rafinha said. “But I’m proud of the team. We gave our all from the beginning. We’re going home disappointed because we wanted to get to the final, but after the game I think we deserved it.”<\/p>\n
Barcelona continued to press<\/h2>\n
Barcelona continued to press, but Atl\u00e9tico’s solid defense held out. “Maybe it wasn’t the best game, but it was a 180-minute game,” Atl\u00e9tico goalkeeper Juan Musso said. “They had everything going their way, but we suffered when we should have suffered. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but in the end we made it to the final.”<\/p>\n
Barcelona lost defender Jules Kound due to injury 13 minutes into the match. He was replaced by Alejandro Balde, who also requested to be substituted in the second half. Forward Robert Lewandowski was absent due to injury.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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