Barcelona reached the Copa del Rey final in dramatic style with a 3-0 win over Sevilla of 10 men at Camp Nou to progress 3-2 after losing the opening leg 2-0 in Andalusia.
It took just 12 minutes for Barca to open the scoring in Catalonia, with Ousmane Dembele finding the back of the net with a stunning attack from the edge of the box that gave Tomas Vaclik no chance in the Sevilla goal not and memories of Ronaldinho in his splendor at Camp Nou. The hosts could have been further ahead at half-time, but a heroic piece by Marco Acuna thwarted them on the goal line, as Barca were sometimes undefeated while thoroughly dominating the ball and dictating the game.
Barca continued to push in the second half and penetrated through Jordi Alba’s effort, which came from the goal, but Ronald Koeman’s men had to wait until death to equalize through Gerard Pique from an Antoine Griezmann assist. make.
In fact, it could have been Sevilla who celebrated because they got a penalty kick for an Oscar Mingueza offense on substitute Lucas Ocampos, but the Argentine international was then denied the spot by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
It got worse for Julen Lopetegui’s men as Fernando was dismissed shortly before Pique’s equalizer for two yellow cards and the difference in manpower said early in extra time when Martin Braithwaite made it 3-0 for the home side.
Video Assisted Referee (VAR) denied Sevilla an extra time penalty when Clement Lenglet handled the ball and Barca’s luck almost ran out when equalizing hero Pique was likely to be injured with what initially looked like a possible relapse on the knee injury.
Pique eventually stretched to the end, but that was not the extent of the drama, as Luuk de Jong joined Fernando to take red off the bench while Barca took further control that night as they booked their place against the winner of Athletic Club and Levante’s tie. .