Barça was not aware that it was impossible and that is why they succeeded. In a context of generalized collapse at the institutional level, football worked its magic and became cathartic. The Blaugrana team achieved the comeback to reach the Cup final, beating Sevilla in extra time by 3-0 and thus overcome the 2-0 of the first leg in a gigantic duel typical of another era.
The drama lived at the Camp Nou had everything except an audience. A huge goal by Dembélé from the start, a penalty stopped by Ter Stegen at the key moment, arbitration controversy to give and take, a goal in Piqué's discount, an agonizing extension, an unexpected hero in the figure of Braithwaite, a Seville facing one less player during all the extra time, a Barcelona enduring the visitor's siege in despair with Piqué visibly injured, the suspense of the VAR and a sensational epic that rewarded the faith of Barça and punished a shrunken Seville.
Barça is drama for the bad, but also for the good, which is sometimes huge. In a socially beaten entity, lost in the courts, with more creditors than the tenant on the roof of the 13 Rué del Percebe block, a party like yesterday is one of those that mark the epoch. Or rather, of those that can change an era.
Some will say that it is only the Copa del Rey, but we must not forget that in the worst times of the club – and this without a doubt it is – the survival of the club was based on magical nights and in comebacks in the round trip tournaments: Anderlecht and Zuviría, Ipswich and Artola, Feyeenord and Rexach, Goteborg and Pichi or Atlético de Madrid and Pizzi will sound like grandparents' feats to many Barcelona fans accustomed to excellence , but they are the ones that kept barça in dark days. Well, this collection of nights to remember is joined by another pair: Seville and Braithwaite.
Trying to explain the game between Sevilla and Barça from a logical point of view is impossible, because everything that happened during 120 minutes concentrates what any scriptwriter would demand of a game if this sport were predictable. Everything happened. And everything happened at the precise moment so that the spectator could not get up for a moment from the chair. The pity for Sevilla is that he played the role of victim before a Barça that returned from the grave.
One of the golden rules in football is that “if something works, don't touch it.” And that is what Koeman raised, who repeated team and drawing with respect to Saturday. However, in order to build this plan, a rule that seemed safe had to be broken: a soleus elongation is two weeks off. The opposite is a miracle. And Barça found the miracle of Pedri's recovery, who left Sánchez Pizjuán on crutches on Saturday and that it seemed that he would not return to the playing fields until the end of the month. The ownership of the canary was the first great scene of a passionate play.
Another of the unwritten rules in football was the one that took for granted that a star like Griezmann would not be three games in a row on the bench. Water again.
They want more, well more. That Dembélé, a guy capable of stopping a counterattack from his team because he is tying his boots, score one of the goals of the year.
Clinging to both Dembélé, Barça tried to find glory, but the crossbar avoided Alba's goal three minutes before the scriptwriter offered one of the highlights of the play: Penalty in favor of Sevilla, which Ter Stegen easily stopped before the reappeared Ocampos. Anyone would say that the game belonged to Barça, but the Catalans suffered it until the discount, with a goal from Piqué to force the extension. Barça already started it in superiority after the expulsion of Fernando and Braithwaite joined Pichi Alonso's club with a goal that represents a final and that Barça defended with Piqué injured to close an epic night.
Changes
Rakitic (53 ', Luuk de Jong), Jesus Navas (53 ', Aleix Vidal), Rekik (53 ', Marcos Acuña), Lucas Ocampos (61 ', Óliver Torres), Griezmann (62 ', Sergiño Dest), Moriba Kourouma (77 ', Busquets), Junior Firpo (77 ', Óscar Mingueza), Alejandro Gomez (78 ', Suso), Braithwaite (88 ', Pedri), Trincão (88 ', Ousmane Dembélé), Munir (105 ', Joan Jordán)
Goals
1-0, 11 ': Ousmane Dembélé, 2-0, 93 ': Pique, 3-0, 94 ': Braithwaite
Cards
Ferdinand (36 ', Yellow) Oscar Mingueza (66 ', Yellow) Messi (72 ', Yellow) Ferdinand (91 ', Red) Joan Jordan (99 ', Yellow) Jules Koundé (100 ', Yellow) Youssef En-Nesyri (102 ', Yellow) Luuk de Jong (102 ', Red) Trincão (118 ', Yellow