Atletico Madrid ran riot against Barcelona in their Copa del Rey semi-final first leg, stunning them with four first-half goals.

A stunning first-half performance from Atletico Madrid secured them a 4-0 win over 10-man Barcelona in their Copa del Rey semi-final first leg at the Metropolitano.

An Eric Garcia own goal opened the floodgates early on before Antoine Griezmann, Ademola Lookman and Julian Alvarez added to Atletico`s jubilation.

Giuliano Simeone tested Joan Garcia early on, but the goalkeeper was caught out in the sixth minute. Eric Garcia played a blind backpass to him, and he let it roll under his foot, leaving him unable to scramble it off the line.

And eight minutes later, former Barcelona player, Griezmann, doubled Atletico`s lead. It was swept out to the right, and Nahuel Molina teed up the Frenchman to slot his low strike into the bottom-left corner.

Fermin Lopez then struck the bar as Barcelona looked to respond before Alvarez saw an effort cleared off the line by Jules Kounde. Molina then fired over the bar, but Lookman guided Alvarez`s clever lay-off into the bottom right corner to add their third in the 33rd minute.

In the second minute of first-half stoppage time, Lookman returned the favour, pulling it back to the Argentinian, who rifled in his first goal since early December.

Pau Cubarsi thought he had pulled one back six minutes into the second half, but the goal was ruled out following a long VAR check as Robert Lewandowski was offside in the build-up.

Atletico continued to dominate, and Barcelona`s game went from bad to worse in the 85th minute as Eric Garcia caught Alex Baena with a high tackle, and the defender`s yellow card was upgraded to red following a VAR review.

Data Debrief: Atletico dismantle Barcelona high line

Prior to this game, Atletico had lost each of their last four on home soil against Barcelona in all competitions, but Atletico now take a demanding lead into the second leg on March 3.

Barcelona have conceded four goals at half-time for only the second time since at least the 2004-05 season. The only other occasion this happened was in the Champions League in August 2020, against Bayern Munich, who won 2-8 in the quarter-finals.

Atletico were deserving of their victory, racking up 2.33 expected goals (xG) from 12 shots as they continuously exploited Barcelona`s high line, with the visitors managing just 1.02 xG from 14 shots.

But it was a game to forget for Eric Garcia, who became the first Barcelona player to score an own goal and be sent off in the same match in any competition since at least 2004-05.