MADRID — How confident was Hansi Flick of turning this UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie around?

“Nine or ten [out of ten],” the Barcelona coach told Spanish TV before kickoff, undeterred by Atlético Madrid‘s imposing 2-0 first-leg lead.

And why not? When you’ve got Lamine Yamal, you’ve got every reason to be positive. The teenager is already so good, so decisive, so often, that it was no surprise to see him dominating this second leg at the Metropolitano right from the start, unfazed by the occasion or the atmosphere.

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“Since I was a kid, I’ve taken on a lot of responsibility,” the 18-year-old said the day before the game. “I’m used to it. I don’t mind.”

Yamal’s first-half performance made the prospect of a comeback possible, putting Barça 2-0 up on the night and 2-2 on aggregate. But the hosts endured, as veterans like Antoine Griezmann and captain Koke were outstanding, and they found a way back.

“It was really hard for us at first today,” Koke said afterwards.

“But we were able to get back into the game. I kept saying, ‘We’re level in the tie, we have to keep going, and get a goal.’ And that’s what we did.”

At kickoff, Atlético would have been determined to keep Yamal and the opening stages as quiet and incident-free as possible, protecting that two-goal advantage. Good luck with that. Just 30 seconds had passed when the teenager picked up the ball, charged straight at the Atlético defense, and saw his shot tipped around the post by goalkeeper Juan Musso.

It was a warning for the home side, if they needed it. But keeping Yamal quiet was never likely to be an option, especially for this makeshift Atlético defense, with Robin Le Normand and Clément Lenglet — neither first-choice for coach Diego Simeone this season — starting at center back.

Four minutes in, Yamal made it 1-0, and the culprit was Lenglet, who often looks an accident waiting to happen when he appears in these high-profile games. Under pressure, the defender gave the ball away. Ferran Torres played in Yamal, who finished through Musso’s legs.

It was the 18-year-old’s 11th Champions League goal. No player has scored more before his 19th birthday, as Kylian Mbappé had only managed 10 at the same age. Already, Atlético were wobbling, the stadium’s raucous pre-match confidence shaken. On 23 minutes, it was 2-0, Torres finishing from Dani Olmo‘s clever through ball.

Torres had been a brave selection from Flick, picked ahead of Robert Lewandowski. Torres went 13 games over two months before scoring against Espanyol last weekend. Here, Flick made the right call, as Torres delivered again.

Only a long break in play, as Fermín López received treatment for an injury to his face, allowed Atlético to compose themselves. Ademola Lookman‘s 31st-minute goal, after Griezmann played in Marcos Llorente on the right, helped the Metropolitano crowd find its voice again. Lookman has now been involved in nine goals since joining Atlético in February, second only to Julián Alvarez.

By halftime, Barcelona had created five big chances, according to Opta. Yamal had scored one of them and created three others, for Olmo, López and Torres. But they were still behind in the tie. Their 2-0 defeat at Camp Nou last week had given them so much to do. Even Lamine’s magic hadn’t yet been enough.

In the second half, there were more heart-in-mouth moments for Atlético — Torres had a goal disallowed for offside, and Olmo shot over the bar when well placed — but Barcelona never quite recovered the Yamal-led momentum of the first-half push.

Eric García‘s late red card, for a last-man shirt pull on substitute Alexander Sørloth, made the task that much harder. It was Barcelona’s second red card of the tie, after Pau Cubarsí’s early dismissal last week, two sendings off which have complicated an already difficult task. In all competitions, Barcelona have received eight red cards this season and three of them have come against Atlético.

In eight minutes of added time, Flick resorted to throwing Ronald Araújo up front, and Barça were almost rewarded when he headed over the bar in the 97th minute. After that, there was time for one last Yamal dribble, a cross to the far post towards Araújo, and it was game over.

“We played well, and we gave everything,” Frenkie de Jong said. “We tried. The feeling is that luck wasn’t on our side. We have to keep going, we’re going in the right direction. With one player fewer, it’s always more difficult.”

Simeone and Atlético’s Champions League record against Barcelona is impeccable, advancing in the quarterfinals in 2014, 2016 and now in 2026. The last two times, Atlético reached the final, only to lose to rivals Real Madrid.

This current edition is a more exciting and more vulnerable team than their reputation — and that of Simeone — might suggest. Already well adrift in LaLiga, they have a Copa del Rey final on Saturday against Real Sociedad — and then will be able to focus all their efforts on this competition.

As for Barcelona and Yamal, their season is almost certain to end with a second consecutive LaLiga title, but hopes of a first Champions League win since 2015 will have to wait another year.

“The next step is to win LaLiga,” said Flick. “We are on the way. It’s not done yet. It’s a big dream to win the Champions League. We have a young team and they can and will improve.”

His name is Vedat Muriqi, and it rhymes with “Pichichi,” the award given to LaLiga‘s top goal scorer each season,

The 31-year-old striker just became Mallorca‘s top scorer in the history of LaLiga, overtaking the greatest-ever African footballer: Samuel Eto’o. Now the big Kosovo international (6-foot-4, 204 pounds) is determinedly hunting down Kylian Mbappé at the top of Spain’s scoring charts, and he is already the first Kosovan to come anywhere close to being top marksman in any of Europe’s five big leagues.

Real Madrid‘s FIFA World Cup-winning center forward, Mbappé — one of the most fêted players on the planet — is now just two goals ahead of Muriqi (23-21), lost to a Muriqi winner when Los Blancos were defeated 2-1 at Mallorca’s Son Moix stadium a week ago and, like everyone else in the league, is being pummeled by “The Pirate,” who has scored more times (12) than anyone else in LaLiga since the start of January. Since Muriqi arrived on the Balearic island from Lazio, he’s been in a squad fighting relegation, surrounded by ho-hum players; Mbappé, meanwhile, is considered the best in the business and has superstars feeding him chances left, right and center.

Pound for pound, what does this say about Muriqi and his achievements?

This is the towering, ponytailed, gap-toothed striker who, every time he scores, covers his left eye with his hand to replicate the patch of a pirate, who sails around the island’s coast in a skip with a skull-and-crossbones flag flying so that he can post on social media whenever Mallorca win.

He’s the pirate now, but he wasn’t always. The whole bit stems from his brilliant sense of humor — an asset you’d have to convince several LaLiga central defenders he possesses because when he’s at work on the pitch, boots on, he’s an outright menace. It all started at Fenerbahce, during his breakthrough to the big time.

“It was my first big game and I scored, so when I went to do the postmatch interview, the guy said to me, ‘Did you see that your wife posted something on Instagram?'” Muriqi told ESPN. “But I had warned her beforehand, ‘Look, please be careful because we’re at Fener now and they’ve got 30 million fans!’ So now I thought to myself, ‘Oh my god, what has she done?’

“But the fans on social media had been asking her, ‘What are you feeding this guy?!’ And she had answered, ‘Raw meat!’ So her post went viral, the Fener fans started to call me ‘Cannibal’ … and whenever I went to restaurants, the staff used to bring me raw meat and think it was a good joke, saying ‘Are you not going to eat it?’

“However, when I moved to Lazio, the sporting director there didn’t like that nickname and told me, ‘You look more like a pirate,’ and from Italy I brought that nickname to Mallorca and did the eyepatch celebration whenever I score … so that’s my story.

“Scoring goals is my job, but this part is a bit showbiz and here in Mallorca, people love it.”

Muriqi is king of the island right now, but he’s self-deprecating.

“I know myself, I’m not a player with good technique, I’m not fast, so the only thing I have is my power — I have to use it in a good way,” he said. “Hold the ball, help my teammates; day by day, I’m trying to force more out of that ability. I know my strongest point and I try to play to it.”

When he’s regularly asked about a 2022 interview in which he was told by a local radio station that his then-Mallorca manager, Javier Aguirre, had called him ugly, Muriqi always shows his good-humored, quick-witted side.

His reply is always, “I know, I’m ugly! I’m not handsome … but I still think I’m quite attractive!” Whenever he’s asked whether his wife, Edibe, agrees with other men’s point of view that he’s “ugly,” he’ll perpetually grin. “She doesn’t see too well!”

Fine: he’s witty, he’s robust in the face of joshing. He’s a really cool guy. But this — in the midst of his current triumph, which really did see him tapping the side of his head to tell the Mallorca fans that they were crazy when they chanted for his Ballon d’Or coronation after that record-breaking brace on Sunday, and then breaking into a Baloo the Bear shuffle and singing along with them — is the same big, old lunk who was down on his hands and knees, openly weeping in agony and relief just a week ago.

Football will slap you in the face one moment and then wrap an arm around your shoulders the next.

The sequence of events went like this: Mallorca lost at fellow relegation candidates Elche immediately before the FIFA World Cup playoffs. Muriqi stepped up for a 92nd-minute penalty and skied it over the bar, spurning a chance that would have guaranteed a crucial point for his team. It was a horrible blow.

Then, with Kosovo, he powered his way through the World Cup semifinal playoff only to lose 1-0 to Türkiye and, in all likelihood, kiss goodbye to his dream of taking his small, young nation to that global football jamboree.

Worse, an uninformed fan on a Kosovan TV program (“Klan Kosova”) suggested that Muriqi — who has Turkish citizenship, something Fenerbahce asked him to apply for in 2015 so that he could free up space in their squad for another foreign player — might have shared Kosovo’s game plan with their rivals. It was unfounded nonsense — the type of trash some feel license to express because social media has unleashed a new era of saying the first mean thing that comes into one’s head.

Terrible, really. And it hurt Muriqi, badly.

He took to social media to state: “Shame on you! I am Turkish speaking like many born in Prizren, but more patriotic and more Kosovan than you! To think a player, in a crucial match for his country, would throw the game just because he was born in Prizren and speaks Turkish … You must have mental problems or be a heartless — devoid of feelings and respect for someone who has given everything for the Kosovo national team. Personally, I will never forgive you for all this pain. May God curse you!”

Hence, when his next match brought that mighty against-the-odds win over Real Madrid, Muriqi crashing home the winning goal off his weaker foot in the dying seconds, mere moments after Madrid had dramatically equalized, he was overcome with emotion.

“OK, I know I’m ugly, and tough, but I’m human, too,” he said. “And there’s a little kid at the heart of how I live, who’s got dreams and who wants to live positive experiences. I’ve had to suffer recently and those tears after beating Madrid were because of that.”

Muriqi then signed off his 55th Mallorca goal by reminding everyone that he’d prefer to stay and end his career there, even turning down a return to Fenerbahce in the winter transfer window, by adding: “Each goal is part of my debt to this shirt. Making history is special, but there’s still so much left to do. Surpassing a great name like Eto’o is an honor, but records are never achieved alone, so thanks to my teammates and everyone who believes in me. Without you, it would be impossible.”

Without him, it’d be impossible for this Mallorca squad to stay afloat in LaLiga. Right now they are eight points off the total commonly held to mean safety from relegation: 42. When they get there, as Captain Muriqi will ensure happens, don’t expect them to hoist the LaLiga flag, it’ll be the Jolly Roger in honor of “El Pirata.” I dare you not to salute.

For Arteta, it won’t matter that his side are not producing free-flowing football – the Gunners just want to get over the line and lift a trophy this season.

They are having to produce results without a number of key players, who are injured. Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori were unavailable to play against Sporting.

Declan Rice did play, despite being unwell.

And now there is fresh concern for the top of the table clash with Manchester City on Sunday, as winger Noni Madueke limped off with a knee injury.

When Arteta was asked if he sees the physical strain on his players at the moment, he said: “Yes, but when I see them track back when we lose the ball, the habits that they have, it’s just amazing.

“There is a reason why we are the only English team in the competition, because this league and this schedule takes the hell out of you and it’s very difficult to do what we’ve done.

“We are not perfect, we need to improve things, that’s for sure, we recognise that. But there’s value in what these players have done because they deserve it.”

Former Manchester City and QPR defender Nedum Onuoha told BBC Sport: “The fact that they are in their second consecutive Champions League semi-final is huge. Their performance itself wasn’t perfect, but they just wanted to be in that next round, and that’s exactly where they are.

“On a different day, maybe they would create more chances, and perhaps they would actually score more goals. They didn’t create very much, but they are still in the last four.”

Onuoha referenced words from captain Rice, who said Arsenal just wanted to “go one step further”.

“They will look at this game and the things they could have done better, but the fact is there are plenty of clubs around Europe who aren’t in their position now who would be absolutely delighted to be there,” he said.

“It certainly wasn’t a statement performance like some teams around Europe have done in this last couple of matchdays, however Arsenal still have shown they have just as good a chance as everyone else.

“We’ve seen a Real Madrid side, for example, that have scored four goals across two ties and have been knocked out.

“Arsenal, they only needed one, so you can give them credit for the two clean sheets they’ve had across the two ties and that’s what they needed to be in this particular moment.”