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Copa Del Rey Final: Barcelona defeats Athletic Bilbao 3-1

By Mike Dyce

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Barcelona defeats Athletic Bilbao in the Copa Del Rey Final, winning their second trophy of the season.

FC Barcelona has already won the La Liga, guaranteeing they would have at least one new trophy in their case this year. They had the opportunity to go for a treble with an appearance in the Copa Del Rey Final on Saturday, and the Champions League Final the following weekend.

On Saturday, Athletic Bilbao came to Camp Nou to try and wreck Barcelona’s treble dreams on their home ground though it seemed highly unlikely.

Barcelona has been on an incredible run of form and their attacking trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez are meshing well.

In the game Lionel Messi got the scoring started with a beautiful goal after an astonishing bit of play. Messi dribbled through what seemed like the entire Athletic Bilbao team, including getting away from three defenders with a nutmeg, to bring the ball in the box and score. It is only the kind of goal that a player like Messi could produce.

Messi had made a beautiful pass to set up Neymar 10 minutes earlier, but the goal was waved off. 16 minutes after Messi scored, Neymar finally got his goal thanks to a simple assist from Luis Suarez.

Saurez was coming down the right side of the box and very easily could’ve shot the ball himself and probably scored. Instead he dumped it to Neymar on the left side of the box who had a wide open net to hit.

In the second half it seemed like Bilbao had given up and become resigned to their fate. In the back end of the second half, Messi scored his second goal of the game to extend the lead to 3-0.

Dani Alves sent a desperation pass into the front of the box finding himself running out of space along the edge of the box towards the end line.

Messi happened to be there behind a group of three defenders, but it looked like Messi was the only one who cared to get there and get the ball. He literally runs from behind all three players to right in the middle of them to get the ball and put it on goal.

All three of those defenders could’ve cleared the ball but none seemed to want it as much as Messi did.

In the 79th minute Bilbao got a consolation prize, a goal to break the clean sheet. Iñaki Williams buried a header that came in from a long cross from Ibai Gómez to beat Marc-André ter Stegen.

It was too little too late but breathed some life back into the game as Bilbao became a little bit more audacious with their chances needing just two goals in the final 10 minutes to tie.

Barcelona would hold on to win though, their 27th Copa Del Rey win.

If they were to defeat Juventus in the Champions League Final and win the treble, it’d be an incredible milestone. They’d become the first club to ever do so.

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