Barcelona crushed 4-0 by Atletico Madrid in Copa del Rey: Is this Lamine Yamal’s worst career defeat?

On Thursday, Barcelona suffered their toughest blow of the 2025-26 season. Lamine Yamal’s side fell 4-0 to Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals, leaving them in a very difficult position heading into the return match.

For Yamal, the night at Estadio Metropolitano will go down as the worst defeat of his professional career. Since making his Barcelona debut in April 2023, the young Spanish winger had never lost a match by four or more goals. The loss marked an unwanted first in what has otherwise been a meteoric rise.

The closest comparison prior to Thursday’s defeat against Atletico Madrid came in another high-stakes clash against a domestic powerhouse. In the 2024 Spanish Super Cup final, Real Madrid handed Barcelona a 4-1 loss to lift the trophy.

Other notable defeats since Lamine became part of the first team include a 3-0 loss to Chelsea in the current UEFA Champions League league phase and a 4-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the 2023-24 Champions League quarterfinals. In none of those matches was Yamal able to get on the scoresheet to alter the course of the game.

The remarkable 73-year streak Barcelona ended

Barcelona’s loss to Atletico Madrid will carry historical weight for several reasons. Chief among them was the blistering start by the hosts, who scored twice in the opening 14 minutes and built a 4-0 lead by halftime.

The last time Barcelona went into halftime trailing by four goals was 73 years ago. According to sports statistics account MisterChip on X, Real Madrid were the last team to achieve such a margin, leading 4-0 at the break during a 1953-54 La Liga match that eventually ended 5-0 in favor of Los Blancos.

A heavy defeat for Hansi Flick as well

Just as it is difficult to find a poorer first-half performance in Barcelona’s modern history than Thursday’s showing in the Copa del Rey, the same can be said for Hansi Flick’s managerial career.

Nothing similar had happened during his time at Barcelona, nor in his previous spells with Germany’s national team or Bayern Munich. The only comparable instance dates back to his early coaching days with Hoffenheim in Germany’s fourth division in 2005. That year, his team trailed 4-1 at halftime against Kickers Offenbach in a match that ultimately ended in a 6-2 defeat.