The first semi-final of the Copa del Rey, where Real Madrid hosted Barcelona,
The first series of two-legged confrontations in the Spanish Cup between Real Madrid and Barcelona took place in the capital of Spain and turned out to be far from the expectations of fans not only of the teams, but of football in general.
Both teams had personnel problems before this match. Barça’s main loss was Robert Lewandowski, who was replaced at the start by Ferran Torres. Pedri also failed to play, but if Kessier replaces the young Spaniard properly, then the problems in attack are huge.
As part of Real Madrid, we did not see Alaba and Mendy, and due to poor form, Chuamena had to release Nacho on the left in defense, and not Camavinga.
Real from the first minutes began to crush the opponent, to attack more, but apart from Modric’s moment in the first minute, it is very difficult to remember something. Barcelona, for the most part, fight back or just keep the ball away from the opponent’s goal.
In addition, passions on the field did not subside throughout the match. Very noticeable was Vinicius, who in the middle of the first half knocked de Jong down with a judo technique and received a yellow card for it.
The Brazilian was most unhappy with the referee’s decision, and even more the mood was ruined by the Barça goal, which occurred a few minutes later.
Kessier runs off to date Courtois, but he doesn’t lose. Fortunately for the Catalans, the ball flew to Militao, and from him to the goal.
For most of the match after that, we watched Real try to have something in the Barcelona goal, or the players kicked in the legs.
Despite Real Madrid’s incredible play advantage and Barça’s simple lack of action in attack, the Catalans had the best moments of the entire match. Kessier was sent out too cold to kick from 11 meters, no one interfered with him, but the Ivorian hit right at Ansu Fati, who appeared on the field in the second half.
In the end, Barcelona played a terrible match in terms of attack, but played the bus exemplary, preventing Real not only from converting their chances, but also from creating of really interesting scoring opportunities.
The second leg will take place in a month at the Camp Nou. In the same place, the teams will play in the championship for two weeks.
Semi-finals of Real Madrid against Barcelona Copa del Rey
really – Barcelona 0:1
the objectives: Militao, 26 (own goal)
- Ball possession: 64% – 36%
- Shots (on goal): 13(0) – 4(2)
- Offsides: 4 – 3
- fouls: 16 – 13
true: Courtois – Carvajal, Militao, Rudiger, Nacho (Rodrigo, 67) – Camavinga, Kroos (Chuameni, 74), Modric (Alvaro, 84) – Valverde, Benzema, Vinicius
Barcelona: Ter Stegen – Kunde, Araujo, Alonso, Balde – Busquets, de Jong, Kessier (Roberto, 85) – Rafinha (Fati, 69), Torres, Gavi.
Warnings: Vinicius, Nacho, Valverde – Rafinha, Gavi, Kessier
Source: korrespondent
I am William Jackson and I have a passion for sports journalism. With over 3 years of experience in the industry, I have worked in a variety of roles to improve the quality and accuracy of sports news coverage. As an author at Athletistic, I specialize in covering football news and providing comprehensive analysis for fans around the world.
