Atlético Madrid 1-1 Barça: Beaten on penalties (3-1)

Barça may have absolutely dominated for most of Wednesday’s Super Cup semi-final, but it’s Atlético Madrid who will be playing Levante for the title on Saturday.

Against the run of play, Atlético took the lead from the penalty spot, and it was not until the final minute that Alexia Putellas took the game into extra time, and it eventually all came down to penalties. And that’s where the Super Cup dream ended.

Putellas, Jenni Hermoso, Marta Torrejón and Caroline Graham Hansen had all been involved in chances that could have put the Catalans into an early lead. Barça were intense, skilful and hugry, and Atlético keeper Lindahl was kept extremely busy throughout the first 45 minutes, but sadly this evening was going to be a frustrating one for the blaugrana ladies.

Penalty woe

Atlético has largely been happy to defend en masse and look for isolated breaks on the counter attack. There weren’t too many of those, but on one of the few Pereira ended up handling in her own area and Van Dongen converted the spot kick to give her side an unexpected lead.

Alexia does justice

Barça Femení still had twenty-odd minutes to set things straight, and were fuming to be denied what looked like a penalty on Graham Hansen. But they kept pressing and pressing and were finally rewarded on the final minute when Putellas found the net (and in doing so surpassed Sonia to become the second highest goalscorer in team history).

Extra time

Hamraoui very nearly nabbed an injury time winner, but instead we were going to get an extra 30 minutes. Both sides took a cautious approach to overtime, but Barça were clearly more proactive and Torrejón and Putellas both had chances but this game was going to be decided with a shootout.

Out of the final

The penalties didn’t go well at all for the Catalans. In fact, they only managed to covert one while Atlético made absolutely no mistakes, and it’s the red-and-whites who will get a shot at the trophy on Saturday.

MATCH STATS

Atlético Madrid: Lindahl, Guagni, Tounkara, Van Dongen, Aleixandri, Mesi, Santos (Diallo, min 76), Sampedro (Duggan, min 73), Knaak (kazadi, min 82), Ludmila (Laurent, min 82) i Castellanos. 

Barça: Paños, María León, J. Hermoso, Marta, Mariona, Alexia, Patri (Crnogorcevic, min 100), Aitana (Oshoala, min 71), Leila (Melanie Serrano, min 106), Graham i A. Pereira (Hamraoui, min 73). 

Goals: 1-0, Van Dongen (min 67); 1-1, Alexia Putellas (min 90). Tanda de penals: 1-0, Deyna; 2-0, Laurent; 2-1, Torrejón; 3-1, Guagni.