BEVERLY HILLS, April 18, (THEWILL) – In a 13-minute second-half blitzkrieg, Catalan side Barcelona scored four goals, including a four-minute brace by Lionel Messi, to thrash Athletic Club 4-nil and win the 2020/21 Copa del Rey Final on Saturday night at the Estadio de la Cartuja.
Barca have now won 31 Copa del Rey titles but this is their first since 2017/18 as the club has gone through a trying period in the intervening years, which they seem to be on the cusp of overcoming with the level of improvement the team is presently witnessing in the closing months of the season.
This Ronald Koeman’s debut season has been tough on both the manager and the team as they had have to pick up themselves after some quite painful losses and find the strength to forge ahead positively. Only last Saturday, they endured the second El Clasico loss for the season but, as usual, shrugged it off their shoulders to get the Dutch manager his first silverware as Barca coach.
Critics of the manager during his rough patch at the onset of his managerial position at Camp Nou may not be fully convinced but Koeman has proved a lot of their negative forecasts wrong as Barca have turned around their season recently. Now that the King’s Cup is behind them, his side can focus on adding the La Liga title to this triumph.
Although Barca dominated the match all through with an incredible 79 per cent of possession in the first half, it took a while for Messi to get going. However, as soon as he switched on, not even Bilbao’s sitting defense could stop him. With Barca up by two goals, Messi ghosted past the backline to nonchalantly nestle the ball in the net.
His second and Barca’s fourth in the 72nd minute took Messi’s Copa del Rey goals over the total of Telmo Zarra, to make Messi the current all-time leading Copa del Rey final goalscorer. Having won the Cup seven times, he has notched up 10 goals in the final tie of the competition to make him the all-time record-holder.
Another achievement Messi made sure to include with his double was taking the number of his 2020/2021 goal total to 30 for Barca in all competitions. It will be the 13th season in a row that Messi has reached this milestone to illustrate without a smidgeon of doubt, the incredible longevity of his ability to remain at the very top of the game.
The confirmation of whether Messi remains in the Catalan club at the expiration of his contract when this season is concluded remains in the air but the Argentine gave everything on the pitch; playing as he had always done, displaying a performance of a player who wants to be nowhere else but with the club and the fans.
But, on Saturday night, another player for La Blaugrana shone like a constellation of stars. That player was Frenkie de Jong. He ran the show in the Copa del Rey final, covering almost every blade of grass, scoring one goal and setting up two more. The former Ajax midfielder put in an outstanding display to make him the man of the match.
Meanwhile, Bilbao will have to look back at what could have been a glorious month if things had turned out differently because Saturday’s loss was their second Copa del Rey final in April. In the rescheduled 2020 Copa del Rey final on April 3, they lost to local rivals Real Sociedad by a lone goal and then again against Barca. Their last taste of victory was in 1987.
Since 2009, Athletic have now lost four Copa del Rey finals to Barca and, at usual, Messi has scored each time, which have helped to take his tally to 10 in finals. All of Athletic’s last six final appearances have inexplicably ended in losses.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
