Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal ridiculed by Diego Simeone during disastrous defeat to Atletico Madrid

Atletico burst out of the blocks in a heavyweight contest that took place in the Spanish capital, with Eric Garcia being forced to put through his own net inside seven minutes. Ex-Barca forward Antoine Griezmann doubled the Rojiblancos’ lead with 14 minutes on the clock.

January signing Ademola Lookman added a third just past the half-hour mark, and it was after that goal went in that Simeone caught the eye with his antics on the bench. The charismatic Argentine went sprinting down the touchline in celebration.

Once back in his technical area, and with teenage superstar Yamal wandering past, Simeone held up three fingers in the Barcelona winger’s direction - with a smile quickly spreading across his face.

Julian Alvarez, who has been generating exit rumours of late, put Atletico 4-0 up in first-half stoppage-time. Simeone’s side should now be out of sight ahead of a return date at Camp Nou on March 4.

Simeone may have the right idea when it comes to containing the very obvious threat that Yamal poses. His fellow coach, Girona boss Michel, recently claimed that getting under the Ballon d’Or hopefuls skin is the best way to stop him from tearing defences apart.

Michel has said, with Barca due to face Girona on Monday: “I think all coaches look for ways to stop Barça’s attack . Their right flank is one of their weapons, because of Lamine Yamal. I already said back then, when I saw the impact he had in LaLiga as soon as he arrived, that we were talking about possibly one of the players who is going to define an era worldwide.

“He’s very difficult to stop because now, in addition to his individual skill, he also has the passing ability. Most dribblers struggle to look far ahead and deliver that cross or that forward pass, but with Lamine, if you give him an inch so he can’t face you head-on, he’ll deliver the pass. He’ll deliver the pass with the outside of his foot and he’ll deliver the cross. And then, if you stay too close to him, he’ll dribble past you. So, we’re talking about a game-changing player.

“I don’t want to give you any clues, but obviously the way you apply pressure is very important. You have to give Lamine Yamal a bit of a hard time.”

Atletico were able to do that when shutting Barcelona out - with Hansi Flick seeing his misery compounded when the Blaugrana’s only effort of the net - which was scrambled in by Pau Cabarsi - was ruled out by a VAR check that took eight minutes to complete due to a failure in semi-automated offside technology.

Simeone told reporters afterwards after seeing his side run riot in pursuit of major domestic silverware: “I think our people need these parties. It's clear, we know the rival we're going to face. We can't give up. There's a long way to go until the return leg but today we had a good joy for our people, who deserve it.”

Flick said of suffering the worst defeat of his professional coaching career, with Eric Garcia being sent off for Barca five minutes from the end: “We didn't play well. We have to go to the second game. It will be very difficult but we are going to fight it. We talked at half-time about the different situations and that we should do better. We didn't see the team I want to see in the first half. I ask why it is offside. I don't know what they have decided. We have to accept it but I don't agree.”

The one shred of comfort for Barcelona is that their crushing defeat was suffered without a number of established first-team stars taking to the field - with Raphinha, Gavi, Pedri, Marcus Rashford, and Andreas Christensen all missing for Flick’s side.