by Max Bentley

February 9, 2012

Goals from Cesc Fabregas and Xavi guided Barcelona to a resounding 2-0 win over Valencia at the Camp Nou last night, sending them through to a third Copa del Rey final in four years as they won 3-1 on aggregate.

Carles Puyol's equalising header at the Mestalla a week earlier had put La Blaugrana in poll position for the second leg and Guardiola's side put in a classy performance to emphatically seal the tie.

It was the away side though who started the brightest and they nearly opened the scoring in the 12th minute when Sofiane Feghouli latched onto Jeremy Mathieu's incise through ball but his shot could only find Pinto's side netting.

Despite their promising start, Unai Emery's side found themselves a goal down only four minutes later courtesy of a wonderful opener by Cesc Fabregas. Lionel Messi picked up the ball just before the half-way line and delivered a sublime lofted pass over the Valencian defence into the path of the onrushing Fabregas who continued his fantastic scoring form with a cool lobbed finish with the outside of his boot over the head of Diego Alves from a difficult angle.

Moments after the restart Barcelona nearly doubled their lead when Messi capitalised upon a defensive error by Adil Rami, surging past the French international with consummate ease but his left-footed strike was parried by Alves into the path of Isaac Cuenca who skewed his shot horribly wide.

Alves was again called into action when he dived low to his right to deny Messi's freekick and reacted well to prevent Puyol from turning in the rebound. Barcelona were beginning to assert their authority and forced Los Che into a series of misplaced passes and defensive errors.

Víctor Ruiz nearly gifted Barcelona a two-goal cushion when his poor touch fell to the feet of Fabregas who found himself one-on-one with Alves but his poor attempt was well foiled by the Valencian keeper who kept his side only a solitary goal down at the half-time whistle.

Rallied by Emery's team-talk, Valencia started the second half strongly and twice came close to reducing the deficit. Pinto had to be alert to deny Jordi Alba after the winger had raced clear of Puyol and he then produced another smart save to deny Aduriz's header.

Barcelona responded in sparkling fashion and Lionel Messi was unfortunate not to add his name to the scoresheet as time and time again he split open the Valencia backline but could not find the finishing touch.

by Max Bentley

February 9, 2012

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