‘We weren’t sharp enough’… Pedri highlights what Barcelona needed to do to avoid a disappointing draw last night | OneFootball

FC Barcelona had quite a mixed night at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium last night as they played the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final against Atletico Madrid.

The match started in a horrible fashion for the Blaugranes, as they found themselves 2 goals down by the 6th minute. However, they started a comeback only a few minutes into the game, with Pedri getting his team back into contention by scoring in the 18th minute.

This goal was key as it allowed the Catalans to mount a comeback, and finish the first half with a 3-2 advantage on the scoreboard.

As Mundo Deportivo has reported, the Canarian midfielder also talked to the media after the game. Like Inigo Martinez, he was also self-critical and was disappointed with how the game ended:

“The final draw leaves a bad taste in my mouth. We needed to be smarter with the ball at 4-2. It already happened to us in La Liga—we weren’t sharp enough, and we have to learn from it.”

Further highlighting the mistakes made by his team, he highlighted how Barcelona needed to be smarter with the ball:

“We needed to calm the game down. Going for the fifth goal, yes, but with intelligence, with longer possessions. However, we rushed in several actions. And without the ball, maybe we could have dropped the defensive line a bit deeper at times. We have to learn from all of this.”

Overall, the midfielder was quite satisfied with this game:

“Those 70 minutes in which we played a great game—playing like that, we are almost unstoppable. I’ll take the reaction after the 0-2 as a positive.”

There is no doubt that Barcelona will have to learn a lot from this game, especially as they also allowed Atletico Madrid to beat them with a goal in the very final minutes of the game in La Liga. Hopefully, these mistakes will not be repeated when the two sides meet in the second leg at the Metropolitano in April.