MADRID, 5 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid returns to a Copa del Rey final nine years later, to fight for a trophy that they have lifted 19 times, the last in 2014, now after a long road, with three scares that required comebacks and victories from weight against strong candidates to certify their presence in La Cartuja this Saturday.
It will be the 40th cup final that the Madrid team has played in its entire history of a tournament in which it has not lavished its dominance as it has done in the highest continental club competition. And this year, in which the domestic championship became impossible after a second half of the season to forget, the Cup is once again an argument to smile at in Chamartín.
Real Madrid began their journey in the KO tournament against the modest Cacereño, a team from the Second RFEF, the fourth division of Spanish football. The recently released format, with great success, by the RFEF causes the ‘greatest’ to go down into the ‘mud’, in small fields and with stands that squeeze a few meters from the grass. All this, plus a team with many novelties, made Carlo Ancelotti’s men suffer, who bordered on surprise, but a solitary and talented goal from Rodrygo avoided embarrassment.
In the round of 16, the whites had a difficult duel at La Cerámica against Villarreal, against whom they started their comeback ‘machine’ for the first time, more common in the Champions League. The team from Castellón was the first major stumbling block, going 2-0 before the break and convinced of becoming a new cup-bearer executioner for the madridistas.
However, their intensity and dominance waned in the second half, when Vinicius and Militao equalized goals from Capoue and Chukwueze. And, in the last five minutes, Ceballos completed the merengue job with the definitive 2-3 that culminated the comeback and certified his pass to the quarterfinals.
At that intersection, he expected a derby with Atlético de Madrid who, eliminated from Europe and with no options for the league title, trusted all their options to the Cup, although for this they had to eliminate Real Madrid at the Bernabéu first. And the game started in a good way for the rojiblancos, who took the lead at the start through Álvaro Morata and stayed ahead until minute 80, when Rodrygo balanced the balance and took the game to extra time.
The tie pushed some more intense locals who overturned the match with a goal from Benzema, minutes after Savic was sent off for a double yellow card. Vinicius sealed the game 3-1 and sealed the ticket to the cup semifinals for Real Madrid four years later.
In the round prior to the final, the two-legged format was recovered, this time with FC Barcelona as a rival, and it was Xavi Hernández’s men who struck first. The azulgranas stormed the Bernabéu in the first leg with a scant 0-1 scoreline, giving just enough and in their most practical version, more focused on neutralizing the white danger than on enhancing their offensive capacity.
The madridistas were not going through their best moment, with more doubts than certainties, heightened by the defeat (2-1) at the Camp Nou in the League, days before the second leg of the cup semifinals. However, Ancelotti’s team reacted in time and endorsed Barça with a hard 0-4 victory to ‘fly’ towards La Cartuja, supported by a hat-trick from Benzema.
This resounding victory allowed the 14-time European champion to break his curse with the KO tournament, a competition in which they had not reached the final since 2014, the season in which they were last proclaimed champions. That year, also with Carlo Ancelotti on the bench, they lifted the Champions League, in a scenario that they hope to repeat this season.