A Lionel Messi brace and goals from Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong gave Barcelona a resounding 4-0 win over Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final on Saturday night.
Ronald Koeman's side settled quickly and dominated the ball throughout but, due to some heroics from Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simon, it took them until the hour mark to bag the opener through Griezmann.
Messi broke forward and laid the ball off to De Jong, before the Dutchman's cut back was clinically finished off by 'Grizou' at the near post - and this was the cue for the floodgates to well and truly open.
The lead was doubled just three minutes later when Jordi Alba's first time cross was met by a stooping De Jong, who headed in from six yards out. And it was 3-0 on 68 minutes when De Jong and Messi linked up beautifully down the right. The Argentine eventually found himself in the area and, with the aid of some magical feet, created space for himself to nonchalantly slot the ball into the bottom corner.
Alba then turned provider once more as his cut back was fired into Simon's near post by Messi in the 72nd minute, securing a four-minute brace. Griezmann was denied a second of his own in the 86th minute when a VAR check ruled that he was offside before rounding Simon and tapping into an empty net.
But that didn't dampen any celebrations as Barcelona ran out 4-0 winners in the final of this season's Copa del Rey, giving Koeman his first bit of silverware as Barca manager.
See photos below;
FEELS GOOOOOOD! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Lti0GJzuOs
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 17, 2021
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