The beginning of 2016_17 season enjoyed a wave of fascinating and breathtaking international competitions that evidently lived up to expectations, but post new year scenario seems to be very dynamic in storming the European’s major cup headlines; one story definitely belongs to Spanish Copa Del Rey. FC Barcelona delightfully booked their passage to quarter_final on Wednesday night after cruising past resilient Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou. The pressure of overturning 2_1 first leg deficit against Bilbao had already intensified the pre_game hypes, but the host side eventually produced yet again another masterful attacking performance to whip out early concerns about them being eliminated. The ideal formation of three men shape in reliance of creative midfield and magical MSN soon dominated the tempo in the final third. The visitors were determined to close down spaces deep in their own half with eye for quick opening runs off the press by Benat their versatile central midfielder in linking with their lone forward Sorbita through direct play, nonetheless; they rarely seen the ball beyond the midfield and Barca seemed to take the lead inside the 15 min. Rafinha neat play picked up Iniesta in a central position as he turned and releasing Neymar on the left, but before Brazilian switching wide to Suarez with an empty net, it was called off for off side. The host shortly after scored the opener, their short exchanging play deep over the line by Iniesta caused Athletic defender Boveda to lose the challenge under Messi‘s pressure and Argentinian squeezed the ball through tied press with his agility before linking to Neymar’s flying run on the left, with open space offered he looked up to send a fine pint point pass across the box for Suarez as he sharply timed his run with a great position when smacking a perfect and accurate half scissor right footed volley into the lower far post. The replay of the build up, inspired by dynamic change of pace and enthusiastic combination with a superbly brilliant execution as usual was a masterpieces produced by the front trio. Barcelona continued their eager attacking possession and with next anticipation in transition they achieved the second goal, a cross field pass over the left flank was charged by Neymar as he burst forward delicately and with a tiny space he nips a fine touch that allowed him to split inside two defenders smoothly, but his run was blocked by Boveda, calling for a pk. The Brazilian converted from the spot to double Barca’s lead and turning the aggregate in their favor in a seemingly confident fashion, which would have left really no chance for the opposition to respond, but visitors appeared to resist the defeat in fact.
In the 74 min a long ball over the midfield had Benat to win a header that set up William with s free run on the right and while his attempted inside play was momentarily interrupted by Jordi Alba, but San Jose quickly reacted to brace in the rebound and streaming past Alba while looking up, sending a precise and fine cross over the far post for Enrique Saborita to glance a fantastic header into the lower side of the net and suddenly leveling the terms as tied looked to face another twist. The host eagerly ignited series of attacking flashes with sim to grab the winner, in two quick succession the involvement of Alba in becoming a wing back on the left has sparked more desirable change of pace to rhythm of wide combinations, first the Spanish left back laid a long pass off to his feet and exchanged a short interplay pass with Neymar’s return ball to a deep run over the edge of box before cutting inside to his right foot, but His effort went wide; four minutes later repeatedly the Spaniard drifted inside and again interchanging with Neymar to another fine deeply sliced pass before combining to Suarez’s run to his right, but Uruguayan also fired his low range shot inch wide of the post. Facing visitor’s resistance Luis Enrique’s men slowly sensed the growing pressure, but yet to find a killing punch; an open play from sergi Robert from midfield picked up Messi on the right flank and he accelerated forward with his dazzling touch into the box but his attempted short pass for Suarez to finish was timely cleared by San Jose at right at the near post, but barca eventually ended their visitor’s resistance. A free kick from nearly 20 yards offered Messi to fire an inch perfect short in-swing ball, hitting the lower near post and deflecting inside the net, sparking wild celebrations through the stadium and once again his sheer genius proved to be a winning inspiration.
The goal truly wrapped the scenario for Barca as their visitors had no answer to change the game and it could have been won.by larger margin in the remaining moments. Comfortable in possession they created plenty of opening chances, Neymar superbly combined with Luis Suarez fine tracking run of Iniesta‘s short play from the right side played off to Robert over the box, but his open shot attempt was blocked by defense, then the midfielder engaged in the next move when linking with Neymar’s pass on the right before turning around his marker to center a wide pass into open space for Suarez and he simply set up Denis Suarez, the talented youngster to finish, but he sent it over the bar. Barca easily secured their aggregate advantage and now are determine to clinch yet another prize to their incredible trophy_laden archive with a shot at copa del ray and possibly will be ambitious ultimately to write another glorious narration of El Clasico history by playing Real in the final.
