By Fernando Kallas
BARCELONA (Reuters) – Atletico Madrid clawed back from two goals down to rescue a 4-4 draw at Barcelona in a rip-roaring battle in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final on Tuesday.
Atletico stunned the home side early on, taking a two-goal lead with Julian Alvarez opening the scoring inside the first minute and Antoine Griezmann extending their advantage five minutes later.
However, Barcelona fought back with goals by Pedri in the 19th minute and Pau Cubarsi in the 21st, before taking the lead through Inigo Martinez’s header from a corner in the 41st minute.
Barca took control of proceedings and Robert Lewandowski made it 4-2 with a tap-in from close range after great individual work by Lamine Yamal in the 74th minute.
But if Barca’s fans were confident of taking a two-goal advantage into the second leg, Atletico had other ideas.
They struck back through Marcos Llorente in the 84th minute and another goal on the counter by Alexander Sorloth in the third minute of stoppage time left it all square ahead of the return encounter in the Spanish capital on April 2.
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas; Editing by Toby Davis)
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