Report: Atlético bow out of Copa del Rey after Sevilla defeat

Atlético Madrid bowed out of the Copa del Rey on Tuesday night with a 2-1 loss to Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. After falling 1-2 at the Wanda Metropolitano, Atlético had their work cut out for them to turn the score on its head at a notoriously difficult stadium for visiting teams.

They didn’t get off to the greatest start when Sergio Escudero drove a volley to the net within a minute of kick-off. There was plenty of blame to go around and plenty of debate over the source of Atlético’s problems with poor defending the most basic of explanations.

It didn’t change much for Atlético, however, as they still needed to score two to have any chance of progressing into the semi-final of the competition.

They had one of those goals on 13 minutes when Kevin Gameiro chested a ball into the path of Antoine Griezmann, who drove a right-footed shot over Sergio Rico and into the back of the net.

That was as good as their visit to Seville would get for Atlético. Saúl Ñíguez conceded a penalty when he ploughed into Ever Banega’s chest in the second half before the Argentinian number 10 scored dusted himself off and slotted home the penalty.

The 4-2 aggregate scoreline soon became 5-2 and a previously improbably mountain to climb became impossible when Pablo Sarabia curled a deflected effort home on 79 minutes.

Diego Simeone was sent off shortly after as Atlético’s implosion continued and as their hopes of a domestic trophy took another battering after their 1-1 draw against Girona at the weekend in LaLiga.