Copa del Rey: Athletic Bilbao dump Barca

Ferran Torres scored his first Barcelona goal on Thursday but was on the losing side at Athletic Club clinched a 3-2 win after extra time to reach the last eight of the Copa del Rey. 

It’s been a tough start to life for Ferran at Barça after joining from Manchester City for 55 million euros. His debut saw the team knocked out of the Supercopa to Real Madrid.

The former Valencia forwarded commented that “we knew what we were up against. I think we played well, but we made individual errors. We’re on the right path. We have to congratulate Athletic.”

Barça played poorly but showed great fighting spirit to come back from behind twice.

Sadly, they conceded a penalty in extra-time and lost both Ansu Fati and Pedri to injuries in what might go down as the most costly defeat of the season for Xavi’s men.

FIRST HALF

Just 90 seconds into the game, Nico Williams beat Jordi Alba for pace on the right side and crossed it along the ground to find Iker Muniain down the left.

The Bilbao captain saw Marc-André ter Stegen out of position and chipped the German to score an amazing goal and put the home team ahead.

Athletic started the game with an insane level of intensity and Barça simply couldn’t match it.

But after 15 minutes the Blaugrana finally started passing the ball in the Athletic half and looked a little more in control.

And in their first real chance of the game, Barça scored a beautiful goal: after an excellent passing sequence down the left wing the ball found Ferran Torres, who cut inside on his right foot and curled a beauty into the top corner to score his first Barça goal in style.

The final 25 minutes of the half followed a simple script: Barça had the ball but wasted possession time and time again with more sloppy passing.

Athletic created really good chances on the counter.

Young Nico Williams was an absolute thorn in Alba’s side and every Bilbao opportunity came from that flank.

SECOND HALF

For large parts of the second half there was little to no action as Barça took control of possession but struggled to break down a very well-organized Athletic defense.

Xavi brought Nico González, Ansu Fati and Frenkie De Jong off the bench early on and all three had a very positive effect on the game, making Barça’s attack more dynamic and less predictable.

As extra-time looked more and more likely, Athletic found the winner.

Iker Muniain sent a free-kick into the box, Ter Stegen saved the initial header by Álex Berenguer but the ball fell to Iñigo Martínez who was first to the rebound and found a way to send it home.

Just as their hopes seemed to fade, the Blaugrana made it 2-2 when Jordi Alba sent a cross into the box, Dani Alves won the second ball with a spectacular bicycle kick assist and Pedri found the back of the net in the 93rd minute.

EXTRA-TIME

The first half of the extra period could not have gone any worse for Barça, who lost both Ansu Fati and Pedri to muscle injuries.

Next, they conceded a third goal when Jordi Alba was called for a handball in the box and the penalty was given after a VAR check.

Muniain stepped up to the spot, scored his second of the game and made it 3-2 Athletic.

Barça had 15 minutes to try and take it to penalties and Bilbao put every player behind the ball to protect their lead.

However, Bilbao managed to frustrate Barça who couldn’t come back for a third time and saw the final whistle come to confirm their exit from the Cup.

Squads

Athletic: Agirrezabala; De Marcos (Lekue 105’), Vivian, Martínez, Yuri (Balenziaga 91’); N. Williams (Zarraga 110’), D. García, Vesga (Nolaskoain 117’), Muniain; Sancet (I. Williams 52’), R. García (Berenguer 79’)

Goals: Muniain (2’, pen 105+1’), Martínez (86’)

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Alves, Araujo, Piqué, Alba; Pedri (Braithwaite 105+3’), Busquets, Gavi (De Jong 61’); Ferran, Jutglà (Fati 61’ (Dest 96’)), Abde (Nico 46’)

Goals: Ferran (20’), Pedri (90+3’)