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Three talking points from Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid

11:48
FC Barcelona v Real Madrid - Copa del Rey Final
Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images

Another trophy!

Victory for the good guys

Barcelona won the Copa del Rey on Saturday night, beating a Real Madrid side who had marred the build-up with their shameful attacks on the match officials and followed that up with more ugliness on the final whistle.

Antonio Rudiger, Jude Bellingham and Lucas Vazquez all saw red for their angry reactions, while Barcelona simply went wild as they followed up January’s Supercopa Clasico win with another victory.

“The good guys always win,” posted Gerard Pique on X after the match, while Carlo Ancelotti was busy telling a press conference “there is nothing bad to say about the team” despite their lack of professionalism after the game.

Elsewhere, the party started as Hansi Flick rightly lauded his players, and Lamine Yamal had a pretty strong message for Los Blancos: “They cannot handle us this year — we have shown it.”

That’s now three wins for Barca over Real Madrid so far this season, with another game to come next month at Montjuic. However, the latest win brings another trophy and means the team’s treble dreams are very much still alive.

Was it a penalty on Raphinha?

The biggest talking point of the night was surely the decision to rule out a penalty for Barcelona at the very end of normal time. Barca thought there were going to be handed the chance to win it at the death after Raphinha went down under the challenge of Raul Asencio.

It seemed a penalty in normal time but Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea was sent to the monitor to check which resulted in the spot-kick being ruled out and Raphinha booked for simulation. The VAR said there was no contact but there’s no doubt it was a controversial decision that could have gone either way.

Barca might have felt a few other decisions went against them, too. Pau Cubarsi seemed to be impeded at a corner, Dani Ceballos went unpunished after raising his hands to Yamal and Ferran Torres appealed for a penalty after being clipped by Rudiger. Nothing doing on any of those.

There’s no doubt at all that De Burgos Bengoetxea and his team were under huge pressure on Saturday, thanks to Madrid’s behavior, but Real can have no complaints about the match officials. They were simply beaten fair and square.

Marathon man Kounde lasts the longest

Barcelona had plenty of heroes on Saturday night. Pedri lit up the match with a simply sensation opener, while Lamine Yamal bagged two assists and Ferran Torres scored his sixth goal of the tournament to rescue Barcelona after they had gone 2-1 down.

Yet the match-winning goal came from the right boot of centre-back-turned-right-back-turned-invincible-machine Jules Kounde. He may be an unlikely hero, but the sight of Barca’s marathon man rising above the fatigue to steal possession and rifle home a winner in the 116th minute was somehow fitting.

”When I saw the celebration, it was incredible, and they deserve it. I’m very happy. It’s a great victory. Koundé saved two chances for Real Madrid and scored the goal. It was incredible,” said a delighted Flick who had to chase after Kounde to give him a celebratory hug.

Kounde’s passionate celebrations, with his team-mates desperately chasing after him, will live long in the memory.

What a moment for the defender. What a night for Barcelona.



Source: barcablaugranes.com

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