{"id":3866,"date":"2026-04-14T00:43:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/3866\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:43:32","slug":"atletico-madrid-captain-fires-warning-to-barcelona-will-treat-the-match-like-a-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/3866\/","title":{"rendered":"Atletico Madrid captain fires warning to Barcelona: &#8216;Will treat the match like a final&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Atletico Madrid captain Koke has sent a clear message to Barcelona ahead of their decisive UEFA Champions League <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/official-fc-barcelona-squad-list-to-face-atletico-madrid-champions-league\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">quarter-final second leg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Atletico head into the clash with a strong advantage after securing a 2-0 win in the first leg at the Spotify Camp Nou, a match that was heavily influenced by the early red card shown to Pau Cubarsi.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, with the return leg at the Metropolitano, the Madrid side are in control, but not complacent.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking ahead of the game, Koke underlined the magnitude of the occasion and what it means for the club:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReaching the Champions League quarter-finals and having the chance to go through to the semi-finals is incredible.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will treat it like a final, and we\u2019re not thinking about the Cup final,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona\u2019s comeback hopes<\/p>\n<p>Despite <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/the-stats-that-favour-barcelona-ahead-of-atletico-madrid-showdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Barcelona\u2019s belief in a comeback<\/a>, Koke made it clear that Atletico are fully focused and motivated to finish the job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s only natural that they\u2019re hopeful. But my teammates are motivated; they respect the opposition, but they\u2019re determined to win the match.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The midfielder also reflected on past encounters, drawing motivation from previous decisive moments against Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>It must be noted that Koke scored a decisive goal in the 2013\/14 Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona that knocked the Blaugrana out of the competition that season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fc-barcelona-v-atletico-de-madrid-uefa-champions-league-2025-26-quarter-final-first-leg-18-1024x683..jpeg\" alt=\"Lamine Yamal, Barcelona player\" class=\"wp-image-196851\"  \/>Koke has sent a warning to Barcelona. (Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Remembering that goal, he added, \u201cI\u2019ve watched the goal a few times.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s true that when these matches come around, you try to motivate yourself with positive memories from previous encounters, like in 2014 and 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember the goal and I remember the atmosphere at the Calder\u00f3n. Hopefully, it will be a wonderful night for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona\u2019s strengths<\/p>\n<p>Koke did not shy away from acknowledging Barcelona\u2019s strengths, particularly their aggressive pressing style, which caused problems in the first leg:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey press very high up the pitch, almost in the middle of the field, which suffocates you.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so important for us to show character, to push forward and make decisive runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve faced each other many times this year; we know each other inside out. It\u2019ll be important to win the ball back from them,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/as.com\/futbol\/champions\/koke-no-pensamos-en-la-final-de-copa-f202604-n\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">AS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atletico Madrid captain Koke has sent a clear message to Barcelona ahead of their decisive UEFA Champions League&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[179,92,222,223,1463,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-3866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-madrid","8":"tag-atletico-madrid","9":"tag-barcelona","10":"tag-barcelona-news","11":"tag-fc-barcelona","12":"tag-koke","13":"tag-madrid"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}