Athletic Club 0-2 FC Barcelona: Half the job done

FC Barcelona are through to Sunday’s Spanish Cup Final after beating Athletic Club 2-0 in Tuesday’s semi-final at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

There were flashes of brilliance and other moments of workmanlike efficiency, but there was no question that Barça were the better side on the day and thoroughly deserve to be just 90 minutes away from the first major trophy of the Hansi Flick era.

Hot on the back of the news of an injunction allowing Dani Olmo and Pau Victor to play, there was further pleasure as Lamine Yamal was able to line up with the starting XI tonight. Not only that, but early in the second half he would provide the second goal of the night after Gavi had put Barça into an early lead.

Ernesto Valverde will not be overly delighted with his own team’s performance, but all the same, Athletic did manage to score two late goals that would have taken the game into extra time, but on both occasions, Barça were saved by the offside flag.

Gavi’s comeback goal

Gavi’s goal was a double reason for celebration. Not only did it get off the mark after 17 minutes, but it was also his first goal for the team since missing a year of football through injury.

The goal was nothing less than Barça deserved. They were in no mood for speculation, and Athletic keeper Unai Simon was a busy man from the very first minute.

Raphinha had the best of many chances (ans what a pass from Jules Kounde) before the 20-year-old midfielder capped a brilliant team move by converting an impeccable assist from Alejandro Balde.

A second Catalan goal looked a lot more likely than a Basque one, but as the first half drew to a close, the blaugrana flame fizzled out somewhat and Athletic started to make their presence felt more and more.

Lamine Yamal doubles lead

One of the prime reasons for their inability to find an equaliser was Wojciech Szczęsny, playing in the Barça goal for only the second time after debuting against Barbastro in the cup, and doing a very solid, composed and professional job of it.

Barça’s spark reignited after the restart, and a second goal created a bit more breathing space. Goalscorer Gavi was now the provider, and what a wonderful sight it was to see Lamine Yamal so splendidly tucking away the finish.

The teenager looked every bit himself in just over an hour of football, even making important contributions in defence, and the goal was the icing on the cake. Lamine was very much the main attraction in Jeddah tonight, and the fans will be going home very happy indeed. There had been doubts as to whether they would even get to see him play. They did, and not only that, they got too him score.

Double blow for Athletic

Barça played fine football, and if it wasn’t their best it was because they didn’t need to. Tonight was about getting the job done, and they rarely looked especially troubled by an Athletic side that never really looked fully settled.

But they had to give it a go and as in the first half, in the final quarter we started seeing a lot more of the red and white shirts.

And it could have been a very different story when Athletic had not one but two late goals disallowed for extremely narrow offside calls. Óscar de Marcos converted an astonishing pass from Nico Williams, and moments later the latter’s brother Iñaki again found the Barça net but neither was allowed to stand.

Two huge let-offs for Barça there and instead the minutes ticked down to confirmation that they will be one of the two teams contesting Sunday’s final at 8pm CET.

The other will be either Real Madrid or Mallorca, who will be battling it out in the same stadium tomorrow Thursday.