Real Madrid exit Copa Del Rey after collapse vs Barcelona
By Hasan Karim
After an incredibly promising first half – Real Madrid completely collapsed as Barcelona sealed their place in the Copa Del Rey final after a 3-1 (Agg. 4-1) win at the Santiago Bernabeu.
This game was a roller coaster. A cauldron of emotions that in the end only boiled into disappointment and the end of our Copa Del Rey run. Whilst Real Madrid certainly can take some positives from the action, their demise was certainly as disturbing as it was frustrating.
Madrid were excellent throughout the first half. There was little that the team didn’t do although, the one thing they didn’t do was ultimately what saw them falter – put the ball in the net. They controlled the possession, defended well and largely controlled proceedings.
Barcelona were largely outplayed with some great chances being created by Benzema and Vinicius . The two were in complete sync throughout but couldn’t make that one final killer moment to score. Sergio Reguilon also had an incredible game as the young star put in an absolute workhorse like shift back to front. Toni Kroos and Modric were effective in their marking of Busquets to nullify the possession play of Barcelona, Casemiro too was herculean in his efforts defensively as well as playing some pin-point passes but they were in vein.
Coming out for the second half, Barcelona upped the tempo and Madrid’s first defensive mistakes were forced as a result. Carvajal was caught watching Dembele’s twinkle toes as he ripped past and fed Suarez for the first goal and the Frenchman did the same as he beat an offside trap to once again find Suarez for another goal. Their attacks came in a flurry of 23 minutes which ended Madrid’s hopes. Their inability to contain Barca on the counter and loss of structure left us open, as it has numerous times this season in games like the one against Sevilla.
In conclusion, Madrid can be happy with aspects of this game – Vinicus proved he is a legit scary prospect (his run to tear down the Barca defence was simply audacious), we controlled the game well and the defence was solid outside of the mistakes made. We muted Messi for the entire game, no mean feat, the only thing missing from this game was a clinical finisher.