Copa Del Rey 2016/17: Barcelona 3 - 1 Athletic Bilbao - 5 Talking Points

A Lionel Messi free kick once again steered Barcelona’s ship in the quarter-finals of the Copa Del Rey overcoming the 2-1 deficit they had found themselves in at the end of the ninety at San Mames last Thursday. The Barcelona talisman’s strike made it 3-1 to guarantee Luis Enrique’s side a spot in the final eight, beating the Andalusian club 4-3 on aggregate.

The home fans gave an unpleasant response after Luis Suarez’s goal was unfairly ruled offside. But the Uruguayan got another chance to bring up his century of goals in spectacular fashion - coming off a glittering volley put together by Neymar. The Brazilian also got his name on the scoresheet to end his goal drought of over 1000 minutes.

The Rojiblancos also made up for their disappointing first half performance with a quick reply through Enric Saborit’s header to keep the aggregate score ticking at 3-3. However, the Cules were rewarded for their hard work in the end, as Messi once again came to his side’s rescue to see them avoid an intense extra time. The Blaugranas now join Alarcon, Alaves, Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid in the final eight of the tournament.

Here are 5 biggest talking points from the fixture –

#5 Barcelona witness some controversial refereeing again

Just another game where the referee got it wrong

This is not the first time it has happened with Barcelona. Recently, with Gerard Pique’s comments taking a dig at La Liga president Javier Tebas for what he considered biased refereeing, the eyeballs were on the match officials. And the game added more heat to the fire when a goal from Luis Suarez was disallowed in the 26th minute.

Not only did it receive an unpleasant response from the home fans, but the goal also would have set up the tempo for the Cules rather than reworking their way to find the opener. A similar situation occurred at the Estadio de la Ceramica stadium when the Blaugranas were denied two penalties in their away eventual 1-1 draw with Villarreal.

While these instances don’t occur often, they can prove to be a big deal when a club underperforms, as with Barcelona at the moment.