Madrid: Real Madrid couldn’t put Barcelona away when it had the chance, and ended up being dealt a hard blow by its biggest rival. In the first of two consecutive games between the Spanish powerhouses at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Barcelona weathered a dominant first half by Madrid and then scored three times after the break for a 3-0 win Wednesday and a spot in the Copa del Rey final for a sixth straight season.
Luis Suarez scored twice as Barcelona advanced 4-1 on aggregate after being held to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the semifinals at Camp Nou three weeks ago. The Catalan club also benefited from an own goal by Madrid defender Raphael Varane. Barcelona will be trying to win an unprecedented fifth straight Copa title in the May 25 final in Seville.
Madrid hasn’t made it to the Copa final since it won its last title in 2014 against Barcelona. It hasn’t defeated its rival in five matches in all competitions, since the Spanish Super Cup in 2017. This year’s other finalist will be decided on Thursday, when Valencia hosts Real Betis after a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Seville.
It was the second of three matches between Real Madrid and Barcelona in less than a month. The rivals will also play each other on Saturday in the Spanish league, with Barcelona nine points in front of Madrid in the standings. Another setback against Barcelona will practically end Madrid’s title hopes in the league, leaving the Champions League as the only competition in which it can succeed in its first season without Cristiano Ronaldo in nearly a decade.
After conceding at home, Barcelona needed to score at the Bernabeu to have any chance of advancing, and it didn’t look good for the Catalan club as it was outplayed by Madrid throughout the first half. Barcelona took advantage of Madrid’s misses and quickly struck after halftime, with Suarez firing a low shot past goalkeeper Keylor Navas after a cross by Ousmane Dembele, who made a run behind the Madrid defenders following a through ball by Jordi Alba on the left flank.
The second goal came less than 10 minutes later, when Varane tried to intercept Dembele’s cross for Suarez and ended up finding his own net. It didn’t take long for Suarez to add another with a Panenka-style penalty in the 73rd after he was fouled by midfielder Casemiro inside the area.
Mesut Ozil leads Arsenal
Mesut Ozil made the most of being handed a rare start by Arsenal boss Unai Emery as the German masterminded a 5-1 victory over Bournemouth on Wednesday to keep the Gunners in pole position for a top-four finish in the Premier League.Ozil opened the scoring after just four minutes before turning provider for Henrikh Mkhitaryan to double Arsenal’s lead.
Lys Mousset briefly gave Bournemouth hope before half-time, but Ozil and Mkhitaryan combined once more to tee up Laurent Koscielny to make it 3-1 before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette rounded off an eighth straight Premier League win at the Emirates for Emery’s men.The Spanish coach has been reluctant to use Arsenal’s highest earner in his debut season in charge as Ozil was making just his second league start of the year.
However, the former Real Madrid midfielder showed why Arsenal handed him a contract worth a reported GBP 350,000 a week last January by rolling back the years as the link-up between him and Mkhitaryan questioned why they had not started together in the Premier League since November.
Emery now has a welcome selection headache for Saturday’s crucial north London derby away to Tottenham on whether to stick with Ozil and Mkhitaryan, while Aubameyang and Lacazette are also in top form and vying for a place up front. Arsenal were helped along the way by some feeble Bournemouth defending as the Cherries succumbed to a 10 consecutive away defeat.
