Barcelona have taken the first step towards a third men’s Treble in club history by winning their 32nd Copa del Rey title thanks to an epic 3-2 comeback victory over Real Madrid in extra-time on Saturday’s Final at the Estadio La Cartuja in Seville. After dominating the first half and taking the lead the Blaugrana were overwhelmed in the second half and found themselves down 2-1 after 85 minutes, but found a way to equalize and force extra-time where Jules Kounde scored a goal for the ages to give Barça a victory in El Clásico that they’ll never, ever forget.
FIRST HALF
After all of the controversy prior to the game, it was not a surprise to see just how much pressure Real Madrid put on the referee. One of the two main stories of the opening period was the relentless protesting by Los Blancos after every single call, and their physicality was allowed to go overboard without much punishment, with Dani Olmo being singled out and constantly fouled hard by Madrid’s defensive players, including once in a tackle by Aurélien Tchouameni that resulted in a yellow card that could have very easily been a red.
The second story of the half was Barça’s response to Madrid’s shenanigans: the Catalans were remarkably poised and composed, focused solely on playing football and controlling the game from start to finish in the period with calm and patient possession and very good defensive work as their offside trap negated Madrid’s very few moments of danger.
They created very good chances and Jules Kounde forced Thibaut Courtois into a brilliant save, but the Belgian goalkeeper couldn’t stop the brilliance of Pedri as The Wizard received a pass from Lamine Yamal at the edge of the box and curled an absolutely sensational shot into the top corner to put Barça ahead.
The Blaugrana continued to play and create, and almost found the second on a corner that was deflected by Antonio Rüdiger onto the post. Madrid’s only moment of true danger came when Jude Bellingham found the back of the net on a counter-attack, but he was denied by the offside flag
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