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The Copa del Rey final kicked off on Saturday night at the Camp Nou as Barcelona went head to head against Athletic Bilbao. Although the game was played at the Camp Nou, Bilbao was designated as the home team by virtue of being the oldest team in the tournament’s history by 12 months. The majority of fans in that stadium were Bilbao fans but of course Barcelona fans were present in anticipation of celebrating with their team in their own stadium.
These two teams have history between each other in the Copa del Rey competition. Athletic Bilbao has played in 37 Copa del Rey finals, winning the title 23 times, while Barcelona has played in the final 36 times and has won the title 27 times. They have gone head-to-head in this final eight times with Barcelona winning six times.
Barcelona came into this match hoping to add a second title to their season and to take one step closer to the treble, something they haven’t done since Pep Guardiola was manager back in 2009. Barcelona has been the only team from Spain to win the treble in Europe, and hope to do it for the second time, this time under Luis Enrique.
Luis Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi started up front for Barcelona. Suarez was questionable for this match due to a hamstring injury he picked up during the second leg of the Champions’ League semi-final match against Bayern Munich, but was cleared.
The first half was controlled by Barcelona even though Bilbao pressured them many times. The statistics showed that Barcelona has most of the possession. The first goal came in the 20th minute when Messi displayed a stroke of genius. Starting from the middle of the field, he took on Mikel Balenziaga and juked him out. Then Beñat and Balenziaga took him on again with Mikel Rico trying to take him on as well, but Messi left all three behind. As he went into the box, he took on America Laporte and was able to get the ball past goalkeeper Iago Herrerin on the bottom of the right corner to make it 1-0.
The second goal came in the 27th minute when Ivan Rakitic, Messi, and Suarez exchanged some good passing. Rakitic passed the ball to Messi, who was just outside the box and passed it back to Rakitic. Rakitic then saw Suarez make a run into the box and played it through to him. Bilbao players thought he was offside, but the flag stayed down, and Suarez played the ball to Neymar, who “kissed” the ball into the net to make it a 2-0 game.
The third goal game in the 74′ min when Neymar saw Dani Alves‘ run on the right side of the field. Alves used his speed to beat Balenziaga and crossed it inside the box for Messi to beat three defenders to the ball at the near post to make it 3-0.
Athletic Bilbao was able to get one goal back in the 80′ min when Ibai Gomes crossed the ball inside the box and Iñaki Williams headed it past a helpless Marc-Andre Ter Stegen and narrow the deficit to 3-1.
With this, the game ended in a score of 3-1 and saw Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta lift the Copa del Rey trophy. Next week, Barcelona faces Juventus FC in the Champions League Final in Berlin, Germany and hope to win the treble and become the first team in Europe to win the treble twice.
