Atletico Madrid on a high after return to Champions League semis and with chance to win Copa title

MADRID (AP) — It's good to be an Atletico Madrid fan right now. One of the most fanatic fan bases in Europe is also one of the most long-suffering ones, with the team perennially in the shadows of powerhouses Real Madrid and Barcelona. Atletico is on top, though, having eliminated Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Champions League and seeing city rival Real Madrid in need of overcoming a one-goal deficit against Bayern Munich in Wednesday's second leg of their quarterfinal in Germany.

Atletico can cap its good week by winning the Copa del Rey for the first time in more than a decade on Saturday, when it will face Real Sociedad in Seville. Fans are feeling good about themselves, and the club is capitalizing on the moment. Atletico on Wednesday posted a series of posts on X provoking Barcelona and celebrating its triumph.

The team lost Tuesday's match 2-1 at its Metropolitano stadium, but it had won 2-0 in Barcelona last week. “How's it going? ” said one of the first posts on Atletico's X account not long after the game.

“We love the smell of freshly cut grass in the morning,” the team said on a post Wednesday, in an apparent reference to the complaints by Barcelona coach Hansi Flick on Tuesday saying that the grass at the Metropolitano was too high and would hurt his team. Another post showed a video of players celebrating on the field in front of Atletico fans after the match, along with the phrase, “More than a club,” alluding to the same words that Barcelona uses to describe itself. One post showed Atletico players wearing sun glasses and using earphones, referencing a similar photo of Barcelona star Lamine Yamal doing what appeared to be a LeBron James impression ahead of the 2016 NBA Finals in which James' Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit in the series to win the title.