Athletic Club knock holders Barcelona out of Copa del Rey

barca vs ath club

The additional Copa del Rey match continued on Thursday evening as Athletic Club thrashed Barcelona in the Round of 16 with a 3-2 win over extra time. Interestingly on paper, the game between these sides quickly reached pre-game hype.

Iker Muniain put Athletic in the driver’s seat just 100 seconds later when his amazing chip passed Marc-André ter Stegen. Fortunately for Xavi’s men, new recruit Ferran Torres came to the rescue down at the other end.

In his second match, the former Manchester City man scored Barcelona’s first goal in an effort to bend over backward.

Despite the lungs in the first half, things went 1-1 at half-time leaving everything to play.

Coming out after that, both sides demanded control. The visitors continued to hold comfortable football but the home side had three times the chance to score the next goal.

The brothers Nico and Iñaki Williams, in particular, became very close but their efforts failed. Barcelona meanwhile has brought in Ansu Fati, Frankie de Jong, and Nico for support.

Then in the death of the game, things changed dramatically.

Athletic pressure eventually broke Barcelona and Iñigo Martinez threw a loose ball over the line 2-1 after Gerard Pique failed to clear it. With just seconds left, Pedri scored at home to make things right.

However, Barcelona’s luck would not last long in overtime. Unfortunately for the visitors, Fati was forced to shed tears after receiving a new injury and a few minutes later VAR called for a handball match against Jordi Alba allowing Mungiain to close things down 3-2 from there.

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