Barcelona downed nine-man Atletico Madrid in a tense five-goal thriller in the quarter-final of the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.
Fernando Torres scored another opening minute goal to cancel out Atleti’s 1-0 deficit from the first leg but Neymar came up with a quick response of his own to restore Barca’s advantage.
Raul Garcia pulled Atletico ahead again from the penalty spot but Miranda’s own goal compounded issues for the Madrid club and Neymar’s second at the break sealed a semi-final ticket for Luis Enrique’s side against either Villarreal- 1-0 leaders from the first leg- or Getafe.
Gabi was sent off in the tunnel at the interval and Mario Suarez saw red late on for a second booking.
An altercation with Neymar, who argued with the Los Rojiblancos’ players on his way to the tunnel landed Gabi in hot soup, as the home team captain never returned on restart. Midfielder Arda Turan was lucky to have gotten away with just a warning when he chucked his boot at the assistant referee in anger in the second half.
Diego Simeone’s side’s lack of disciplined reached its tipping point with Suarez receiving his second yellow card for a foul on Lionel Messi six minutes to the final whistle.
Aside the frustration, which spoiled Atletico’s day following Neymar’s brace, the hosts were worthy candidate for a second leg resurgence after Torres controlled a long ball, whizzed past Javier Mascherano and shot in off the post in the first minute.
Barca were back on level term eight minutes later, thanks to the deadly combination of Luis Suarez, Messi and Neymar, with the Brazilian getting on the end of a fluid counter attack to sweep home from 12 yards.
Garcia converted his penalty after Mascherano appeared to foul Juanfran outside the box but Miranda thumped a Sergio Busquet glancing header into his own goal to jeopardise all effort by his team-mates all night.
Moments after appearing to handle a goal-bound Antoine Griezmann’s shot, Jordi Alba coasted down the length of the pitch to send a delivery to Neymar, who tapped in to leave Atletico needing to score three goals to progress at the break.
