Copa del Rey 2016 final: Barcelona 2-0 Sevilla - 5 talking points
Barcelona retained the Spanish double by beating Sevilla 2-0 at the Vicente Calderon in an ill-tempered affair that saw the sides reduce to 10 and 9 men respectively.
The Spanish champions had to dig deep as they were kept at arm's length by the direct and physical approach employed by Los Nervionenses, and also lost Javier Mascherano to an early red card.
The game ended goal-less in normal time, but it didn’t take much longer in extra-time for full-back Jordi Alba to finally break the deadlock. The Catalans were racing to a 1-0 victory before Neymar fiercely slotted home the second to put the tie to bed.
Sevilla threw everything they could, but couldn’t match the quality of this Barcelona side. Here are the major talking points spruced up from the heated 2016 Copa del Rey final.
1) Swashbuckling Barca bag another Spanish double
With that, Barcelona have now completed the Spanish double of La Liga and the Copa del Rey for the second year running, highlighting the hegemony they’ve held in the country. Although the dream of a back-to-back treble was long quashed after the defeat to Atletico Madrid but that still doesn’t take away the gloss from another fantastic season that the Catalans have had.
There were jitters in the early stages as Barcelona were forced on the back foot and also went a man down just after the half-hour mark. Things went worse when Luis Suarez limped off the field with an apparent hamstring problem. But eventually, the supreme quality of this team still made the difference.
While their rivals from Madrid will compete in the finals of the Champions League later this week, there’s no denying the force that Barcelona are to reckon with. Consecutive domestic doubles only corroborate the fact.