FULL TIME: Barcelona 2-0 Sevilla – Barça win Copa del Rey
Barcelona win by two goals but for much of this final it was Sevilla who were on top. A second red card - for Sevilla - turned the match on its head though. And once Messi had space and time he was able to kill off a fading Sevilla, who started to feel the exertions of winning the Europa League.
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GOAL! Barcelona 2-0 Sevilla (Neymar 120min+2)
And that is that. Rafinha and Messi make the most of the extra space afforded by that sending off on the edge of the area. It is Messi who plays the killer ball to Neymar, running in on the left and he slots the ball past Rico.
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RED CARD FOR SEVILLA! Carrico (120mins)
Another booking for Carrico, and he’s off. It was an ugly challenge on Messi and he can have few arguments. Messi made the most of it, mind.
119min (extra time): Sevilla amble up the pitch but the final ball is tired (which is fair acceptable in the circumstances, I guess). Barcelona bring on Roberto for the goalkcorer Alba. There will be three minutes of added time.
117min (extra time): Neymar is hustled to the floor by Coke. Barça take their time with the free-kick but Neymar eventually comes up with a fizzing shot that the excellent Rico saves low to his right.
115min (extra time): Gameiro is shown the yellow. Are there any more Sevilla players to book? No wonder the poor ref got cramp.
114 min (extra time): A corner for Sevilla, it bounces around the area before Ter Stegen claims the ball.
112min (extra time): The ref is getting a nice massage for his cramp now. He looks quite relaxed. The players look happy enough to have a little rest.
110 min (extra time): The ref is down with cramp! “A chance for Llorente to come on and do an Andy Carrroll, score a goal, and, like Andy Carroll, shove his way back into the national team,” asks Charles Antaki. “Or probably like Andy Carroll, neither of those things.” I’m thinking neither.
108min (extra time): Sevilla get a good spell of possession in the Barcelona half to start the final 15 minutes. At the other end Neymar scampers free but can’t find Messi in the area.
106min (extra time): Llorente comes on for Sevilla in place of Iborra. Kelvin emails in to defend Ronaldo v Messi: “Not just the fake tan, though, is it? there’s the tax thing and a bit of generosity difference there too.”
Half time (extra time): Barcelona completely dominated the first half of extra time - they are still only 1-0 up though. It only takes one wild/lucky swing from a Sevilla boot to even things up.
105min (extra time): Escudero becomes the 967th Sevilla player to be booked. To the surprise of no one, it is Messi who is brought down. Pique then nearly makes it two - a lovely free-kick from Neymar lands on the defenders head and Rico pulls off a brilliant save to keep his team in it.
103min (extra time): Messi skims a free-kick into the near post, hoping to catch Rico off guard - most would have expected the cross there. But Rico is equal to it. “That pass by Messi characterises the difference between him and CR7,” says Paul Fitzgerald. Sure, that and the lack of a fake tan.
102 min (extra time): Barcelona are charging forward now - they want to kill this off. Neymar plays the ball across the area for Messi but Leo slips and Sevilla win the ball back.
100 min (extra time): It’s almost like Messi is the best player in the world. The game had become a series of scrappy fouls. And then Messi looked up and decided to pull that ball off. Vision and precision ended in a lovely finish from Alba. Messi then tries to chip Rico from 40 yards out to top things off.
GOAL! Barcelona 1-0 Sevilla (Alba 96min)
Messi plays a brilliant 45 yard ball that rakes across the pitch and onto the toes of Alba in the area. He shrugs off his marker and pokes the ball across Rico and into the corner of the net.
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96 min (extra time): Coke’s long throw calls small tremors in the Barcelona defence but they’re composed enough to clear. Busquets then pulls of a brilliant tackle to deprive Sevilla of the ball - a good, positive passage of play from Sevilla who, let’s face it, 98% of us expect to crumble sometime soon.
93 min (extra time): Another yellow card: Neymar is too quick for Krychowiak who grabs at his arm. Messi has the free-kick to the right of goal, he swings it in but Sevilla clear ... eventually. Barça will have a corner though. And Sevilla clear again.
91 min (extra time): The advantage would seem to be with Barcelona, who have been boosted mentally by seeing the numbers evened up after Sevilla’s sending off. And they’ll be the fresher physically too: Sevilla are coming off a short week after their Europa League win over Liverpool. “Luis Enrique’s sideline management style puts me in mind of a professional wrestling manager. It’s theatrical, it looks like he cares, he has very little control over the outcome and I always feel most of it is for show more than anything else,” chuckles David Flynn.
Full-time (extra time to come): Barcelona 0-0 Sevilla
This is descending into a brawl. Iborra sinks his studs into Ter Stegen’s chest as he stretches for the ball in the area. That ends regulation - and we’re going to extra time.
90 min +4: Sevilla are hanging on now. A corner to Barcelona, and it’s swung out to the edge of the area where Mathieu meets the ball with his head but it’s claimed easily by Rico.
RED CARD! Banega (90min+2)
Barcelona have pierced Sevilla again and again with through balls in the last ten minutes. This time it comes from Messi and Banega has a grand old hack at Neymar. The sending off is justified. The resulting free-kick from Messi is just tipped over.
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90 min +1: We’ll have five minutes of added time.
90 min: Another “foul” on Neymar and again the ref waves play on. Alves screams at the ref, and is booked for his troubles. Iniesta then gets involved and is booked too.
88 min: Neymar surges towards goal but it’s an excellent tackle to deprive him of the ball. Hmmmm. On a second look it was a foul. Sevilla are lucky to escape with that one.
86 min: PENALTY? NO PENALTY! Iborra goes down in a jumble of limbs in the area under pressure to Alves. He handles the ball as he goes down and the ref awards the free-kick to Barca. The grin on Iborra’s face shows he may half-agree with the ref.
83 min: The Barça goalkeeping coach has been asked to leave the bench by the ref. He’s not happy about it, and is refusing to leave because clearly his presence is vital to the outcome of this game. Anyway, off he’s trotted now and we can continue.
80 min: Pique dives in at Gameiro’s feet - the defender has been great at the back today - wins Sevilla a corner. This is followed by another corner. And another. On the third, it looked like Mathieu may have been holding on to Gameiro but the ref is happy for play to continue.
76 min: Iniesta makes a good, surging run for Barça and Vitolo is forced to take him down - he’s booked. Messi is the man to take the free-kick around 30 yards out in the centre of the pitch. His set-piece beats the wall but doesn’t need to stretch too far to fall on the ball and smother it.
73 min: The Cup finals in England, Germany and Italy all went into extra-time this weekend. And Spain’s version looks like it may well be heading the same way. Sevilla have a chance now though. Alves brings down Banega about 40 yards out but it’s a bit of a mess. Rami is then booked for a medieval hack.
69 min: Violo wanders in from the left - he’s got plenty of space as 10 man Barcelona tire. And then Alves is down - but to the relief of Barcelona, he’s OK to continue.
66 min: Busquets charges down a Gameiro shot and Sevilla have a corner. Barça clear halfheartedly and when the ball comes crashing back in, the league champions are lucky it doesn’t deflect into the net.
64 min: That break while Suarez and Messi were down injured has disrupted the game a little and there hasn’t been much in the way of action for either side. Strange that Sevilla haven’t been more attacking with Barcelona down a man AND without Suarez. Maybe they’re starting to feel the effects of that Europa League final.
61 min: Messi does a decent impression of a leftback, winning a tackle. But his days at the back end when he loses possession. It was nice while it lasted. At the other end, Ter Stegen has to come out of goal to gather a loose ball.
58 min: Neymar explodes into life hustling down the lefthand side. He wins a corner but Sevilla clear with ease.
57 min: Messi is OK to continue but Suarez is hobbling off. He went down unchallenged as he stretched for the ball, and it looks like a hamstring injury. That could be very bad news for Uruguay at Copa America. Rafinha is on for Suarez.
56 min: Messi is back on his feet - but now Suarez is down and clutching his leg. It could be a hamstring - that could have repercussions for his Copa America campaign if it’s serious.
54 min: Messi is down after a nasty clash of heads. He took a powerful blow to the side of his head - he is conscious but looks in pain. Matt Vogel emails in to tell us he’s in the office working on test data on a device that removes carbon dioxide from the gas stream supplied to astronauts during spacewalks. If anyone else reading this is doing anything more impressive than that, then they are a liar.
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51 min: Sevilla hit the post! The Europa League champions play the ball around nicely on the edge of the area before Banega unleashes a low shot from 20 yards out. It crashes off Ter Stegen’s righthand post, and across the goal. Fortunately for Barcelona there are no Sevilla players to tap it home.
48 min: Sevilla are the better team in the opening minutes they’re clearly going to try to make that man advantage count. “Was Mascherano wise to bring his man down for the red card,” asks Jazi Zilber. “It comes to two gambles: 1) Odds of a goal. There was a chance on a central one on one. 2) Odds of being sent off. He had a decent chance to get away with a yellow. Red card v goal is probably worth it, if the odds were 1 + 1 respectively...”
46 min: And we’re back. Mathieu is on for Rakitic. “If Barcelona win tonight, they’ll have won both major domestic trophies,” says Kári Tulinius. “Then Spain will join France, Italy and Germany, in that one team has hogged the trophies this year. That four out of the big five football nations in Europe would have a single club sweeping up the silverware has to be a record. I don’t know the root cause (*cough cough* systematic inequality of resources *cough*) but at least England has kept things more diverse, with three domestic winners.” Yep, was nice to see the minnows Man Utd win the FA Cup after Leicester City strolled to the title.
About that sending off: “I live near Barcelona so I’m watching the match on the Catalan pro-independence propaganda channel TV3,” says Colm Cross. “According to their commentators it was never a red. They’re still less blinkered than their Spanish speaking counterparts on Telecinco.”
Half-time: Barcelona 0-0 Sevilla
Just the one minute of added time - a surprise given the sending off but it’s Barcelona finishing the stronger, as they win another corner. This one is played waaaaaaay back to Alves, presumably for a shot from distance but Sevilla spring out of their area swiftly to close him down. “Barcelona rubbish,” says Niall Mullen. “Liverpool were winning by this stage.”
45 min: Pique nearly puts Barça ahead. He gets away from his marker on a corner but his thumping header is thumped a little too wide of the target.
43 min: The Mascherano sending off is shown again, and it was definitely a red card. That’s just their second red card of the season, the man to go that time was ... Mascherano.
40 min: Barcelona knock it about at the back as they attempt to regather. Time to get into the break with the game still tied and think about how they handle the next 45 minutes.
37 min: Sevilla have a free-kick around 25 yards out after the Mascherano red card. Ter Stegen has to be at his best to tip a dipping free-kick from just under the bar.
RED CARD! (Mascherano 35 min)
Well, that changes things. It’s a straight red for Mascherano, he grabs at Gameiro’s shirt as he rushes through on goal. It’s a clear scoring opportunity - so the Argentinian has to go ...
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34 min: Rami attempts to reinterpret defending as we know it by heading a ball around two inches off the turf. He doesn’t sell this new philosophy well though, missing the ball and banging his head on the pitch too. Still, it’s a fine attempt at innovation even if it made him look stupid.
30 min: Alba wins the corner off a blocked cross. The set-piece is cleared as far as Dani Alvez but his powerful shot goes just wide of the righthand post.
28 min: It’s been an even game so far, Sevilla are certainly a lot more solid than they were in the early stages of the Europa League final - and that didn’t end too badly. If anything, they’ve had the slightly better chances and with more composure could be 1-0 up.
26 min: Alba has to clear quickly after Coke causes a few problems in the area. Iborra then chooses to flick a ball on to a team-mate rather than chest it down. That gives Ter Stegen time to steam out and clear the ball. Oh, and it was offside anyway. Nothing to see here.
23 min: What do you know? Barcelona hog possession as they look for an opening on the edge of the Sevilla area. But Sevilla stay vigilant and the danger fades.
20 min: Messi has a free-kick around 30 yards out but Barcelona are caught offside. “One of these days Neymar will take on his man on the outside and, who knows, may score a goal or two,” notes Charles Antaki.
18 min: Coke has a golden chance! He’s unmarked around 10 yards out and just needs to sidefoot it in the general direction of goal. Instead his shot goes ... kind of backwards. Not his finest moment.
16 min: Messi is fouled by Vitolo, and we have a free-kick that ends up in a corner via some fiendish Iniesta trickery. Busquets set-piece clears everything though – Barcelona heads, Sevilla heads, clouds, mountains, satellites - and it’s a Sevilla goal-kick.
13 min: Sevilla get their first corner of the game. They play it short and Iborra gets his head to the ball but his effort flies across goal.
9 min: Best chance of the game so far. Iniesta chips the ball over two defenders and Suarez takes the shot as the ball sits up on the edge of the area. But it’s all a bit rushed from the Uruguayan - who has more time than he may have thought - and it skips wide.
8 min: Scary moment for Ter Stegen who comes to the edge of the box to clear a bouncing ball and miscontrols. But there are no Sevilla players in sight and the danger passes.
6 min: Messi’s first charge of the game deflects to Alba, who spreads the ball to Neymar but his various jinks are soon stifled by Sevilla. Soon afterwards Gameiro darts into the box and Mascherano has to nip in with a great swinging boot to clear the danger.
4 min: A quick ball up the middle from Sevilla nearly catches Barcelona out but Piqué is there to sweep up the trouble and he clears with a minimum of fuss.
1 min: And we’re off, on a beautiful evening in Spain (says the man on TV). Barcelona are in their famous red and blue, Sevilla in white with jaunty red socks. Some midfield tussling results in Suarez falling to the turf but he’s back and jogging around shortly afterwards.
The teams are out and the national anthem is being played (rather more successfully than the English one at the FA Cup final). Kick-off is minutes away.
Hats duly tipped to Andrew Iniesta:
Iniesta today equals Carles Puyol’s 593 official games for Barcelona - ahead of him only Xavi who got to 767.
— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) May 22, 2016
So, Barcelona go for their seventh domestic league and cup double - a record against Sevilla. And Sevilla are going for a double of their own, after their victory over Liverpool in the Europa League final earlier this week. While both teams have something to celebrate with a league and European title between them this season, Barcelona failed to make it to the Champions League final while Sevilla failed to crack the top four in the league.
Barcelona have been in terrifying form since losing three in a row back at the start of April: they’ve won five in succession, scoring 24 goals and conceding 0. Sevilla will do well to stay in this once, despite that terrific victory in midweek.
Messi heart Sevilla. Leo has scored against Sevilla 25 times in his professional career - more than he’s managed against any other opponent (even Rotherham United). And the scoring started early too: here he is scoring four against Sevilla in the Under-19 Copa del Rey back when he was 16 (he actually looks a little older than 16, which is odd. You always imagine a 16 year old Leo would look 12):
The teams are in ...
Barcelona shock the world by playing Neymar, Messi and Suárez:
🔵🔴 #FCB XI
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 22, 2016
1. Ter Stegen
3. Piqué
4. Rakitic
5. Sergio
6. Alves
8. Iniesta
9. Suárez
10. Messi
11. Neymar
14. Mascherano
18. Alba#FinalCopa
👥 Substitutes for #FCB :
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 22, 2016
13. Bravo
7. Arda
12. Rafinha
17. Munir
20. Sergi Roberto
22. Aleix Vidal
24. Mathieu#CopaFCB #FCBlive
And Sevilla are kind enough to provide some information of their own, only with whizzier graphics:
ONCE del #SevillaFC en la #FinalCopa ante el @FCBarcelona #vamosmisevilla #SevillaUnaVezMas #ConRealeALaFinal pic.twitter.com/ed84Ymwq5E
— Sevilla Fútbol Club (@SevillaFC) May 22, 2016
Tom will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Sid Lowe on Atletico’s preparation for the Champions League final:
Barcelona and Sevilla arrived in Madrid as the city prepared its departure for Milan, the last of the Spanish capital’s European Cup final ticket allocation finally sold. At Atlético’s Vicente Calderón stadium they were getting ready for the Copa del Rey final between the recently crowned league champions and the even more recently crowned Europa League champions; at Atlético’s Cerro del Espino training ground, they were getting ready for the Champions League final against Real. Saturday morning aerobics with Oscar “El Profe” Ortega, Diego Simeone’s relentless fitness coach, followed by a full rehearsal on pitch one.
In red: Oblak; Juanfran, Godín, Giménez, Filipe Luís; Saúl, Augusto, Gabi, Koke; Torres, Griezmann. Against them, nine Atlético first-teamers plus two kids from the youth team, in white bibs and a 4-3-3 formation, with Yannick Carrasco as Cristiano Ronaldo, Luciano Vietto playing Karim Benzema and Angel Correa in Gareth Bale’s role. Final score? 0-0. Not even a dodgy penalty, blown by Simeone in his role as referee, could produce a winner: Antoine Griezmann shot wide.
Another clean sheet, then, at the end of a season in which Atlético have kept 34 of them. “That will be important in Milan because then you only need to score one,” the goalkeeper Jan Oblak said. “We’re very happy with the record, but the final is another game.”
“The game of our lives,” Fernando Torres calls it, and Torres is a World Cup winner whose strike in the Euro 2008 final clinched Spain’s first triumph in 44 years. “You never know how many finals you’ll get; you have to play each as if it was your last,” Koke added.
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