Ceuta – Barcelona, King’s Cup: Final score 0-5, Barcelona’s trip to the quarter-finals with an easy win on the road.
Barcelona safely through Del Rey Cup Quarter-finals And there was no drama against a lower-tier side this time around as the Catalans dominated Ligue 3 Ceuta and won 5-0 at the Alfonso Morube Stadium in their last-16 clash on Thursday night. The Catalans got off to a slow start but were untested by the hosts, pressing enough in the second half to score goals and cruise through to the next round.
first half
The first 30 minutes of the match were, to put it nicely, straight garbage. Ceuta were clearly a team lacking any real talent and were playing on pure adrenaline and intensity, trying to move the ball up the pitch and create chances with crosses and set-pieces while defending as hard as possible to give Barcelona no space.
On the other hand, Barcelona was playing at first speed, moving the ball very slowly with fixed players unwilling to run behind Ceuta’s defense. The pace was terribly slow, and neither team came close to scoring a goal early.
As we approached the end of the first half very slowly, Barcelona finally showed some signs of life in attack and began threatening runs back and longer passes to hold the Ceuta defense out of position. the Blograna They were poor in the final third, with bad touches and faulty decisions killing promising moves, but they were starting to look like a team ready to score.
And with four minutes left in the first half, they did it through the only player to actively try something in the game: Rafinha received a pass on the edge of the penalty area, swept the ball in with his left foot and fired a sublime shot into the bottom. A corner to give Barcelona the lead.
In the first half, the slow and unimaginative Barcelona team finally decided to pick up the pace and scored a goal in the dying moments, and if they chose to play a little better in the second half, they could finish the game early.
the other half
Barcelona got off to a perfect start in the second half with an early goal to double their lead: Franck Kessie won the ball high up the pitch, Ceuta tried to play from behind and Robert Lewandowski found himself alone inside the penalty area and the pole put the ball in. The ball through the goalkeeper’s legs to make it 2-0.
Ceuta had absolutely nothing to lose and started sending more bodies forward in search of an unexpected target that would get them back in the game, but that left them too open and vulnerable to counter-attack.
It took a while but Barcelona finally capitalized on the extra space and killed the game: Jordi Alba found Ansu Fati alone on the left wing and the substitute sliced his right foot in and found the bottom corner to make it a hat-trick and finish. The task is with 20 minutes to go.
The final minutes were all about controlling the game and keeping a clean sheet but there was still time for another goal as Rafinha sent in a perfect cross from the right and Frank Kessie reached into the box to head home the fourth and complete his excellent night.
With the win in the bag, there was still time for a first-team debut, as Under-19s star Ángel Alarcón came on with 10 minutes left. Alarcón didn’t do much but Barcelona added the fifth with another excellent finish from Lewandowski, and the final whistle blew to send Barcelona through to the next round.
Championship teams dominate the bad guys. Barcelona have done just that and it’s very good to see.
Ceuta: megias. García, Gutiérrez, Lafarge (Danese 68′), Alfonso; Cuevas (Garcia 57′), Reina, Lopez (Iglesias 57′); Ahmed (round 57), Rios (Kasai 78 min), Gonzalez
Objectives: no one
Barcelona: Pain; Pellerin, Eric, Alonso (Christensen 73′), Alba; Casey, Roberto (Busquets 73′), Toure (Gavi 46′); Rafinha (Al Arcon 80′) Lewandowski Ferran (Fati 60′)
Objectives: Rafinha (41min), Lewandowski (50min, 90min), Fati (70min)