Barcelona made it to their fourth straight Spanish Cup final thanks to a Luis Suarez goal but he will miss the game after being sent off in the dramatic semi-final.
Luis Enrique’s side finished with nine men after both Suarez and Sergi Roberto walked. Atletico Madrid also had Yannick Carrasco sent off and were lucky not to lose Filipe Luis too after he scythed down Lionel Messi.
There was a missed penalty and confrontations between the two benches as the two old sparring partners did not disappoint in an epic struggle.
After the final whistle, Suarez labelled his sending off on Tuesday night laughable and said he hopes it will be overturned allowing him to play in the Copa del Rey final.
The Uruguayan was shown a second yellow card for what looked like an innocuous challenge on Lucas Hernandez.
‘I just turned and jumped,’ said the forward. ‘I don’t even think it was a foul. I hope we can appeal the decision.
‘I’m laughing at the decision. It seems like it was what he wanted. We know how this goes. You could see it coming.
‘The first card was for my first foul of the game and the second card was for nothing.’
Suarez had scored the first half goal that in effect sends Barcelona into the final. It was his fifth in five games.
He added: ‘I think we deserve to be in the final. We knew we would have to suffer right until the end in this type of game against a team like Atletico.’
Luis Enrique added: ‘I will have to sit down and watch the whole game again at home to really comment on everything that happened.
‘They were dangerous from the start but my team stood up to them and we deserve to be in the final.’
Diego Simeone could not have picked a more attacking side and the plan to get at Barcelona in the first half worked almost perfectly – all that was missing was the most important thing: the goal.
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