 La Cartuja inSeville hosted the final. | |||||||
| Event | 2020–21 Copa del Rey | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Date | 17 April 2021 (2021-04-17) | ||||||
| Venue | La Cartuja,Seville | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Lionel Messi (Barcelona)[1] | ||||||
| Referee | Juan Martínez Munuera(Valencian Community)[2] | ||||||
| Attendance | 0[note 1] | ||||||
←2020 2022 → | |||||||
The2021 Copa del Rey final was a football match that decided the winner of the2020–21 Copa del Rey, the 119th edition of Spain'sprimary football cup (including two seasons where two rival editions were played). The match was played on 17 April 2021 at theEstadio de La Cartuja inSeville betweenAthletic Bilbao andBarcelona.[3][4]
Barcelona won the match 4–0 for a record-extending 31st Copa del Rey title.[5][6]
The tournament was played amidst the backdrop of theCOVID-19 pandemic in Spain which resulted in no crowds being allowed to be present in the stadiums. Barcelona's progress was characterised by narrow victories and dramatic comebacks, including being taken to extra time by part-time neighboursCornellà after failing to score from two penalties,[7] finding the net twice in the last 20 minutes to overcome second-tierRayo Vallecano,[8] and recovering from a 2–0 deficit with just three minutes remaining againstGranada, taking the tie to extra time which ended in a 5–3 victory.[9] They gave themselves a mountain to climb once again in the semi-final againstSevilla (a repeat of a recent final in2018 and the only round of the competition with two legs), going down 2–0 at theRamón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. In the return atCamp Nou,Ousmane Dembélé scored early andMarc-André ter Stegen saved a penalty to keepBarça hopes alive, but they were still behind with 90 minutes played;Gerard Piqué equalised in the fourth and last minute ofstoppage time to level the tie on aggregate, and in extra timeMartin Braithwaite found the winner to take his side into their 42nd final.[10]
Athletic Bilbao's route to the event was comparably uncertain: they came from behind to overcome third-levelIbiza 2–1 with a last-minute goal,[11] required a late winner again againstAlcoyano (who had eliminatedReal Madrid from the competition),[12] and scored in the third minute of second-half stoppage time minute to take their quarter-final againstReal Betis to extra time, before advancing with a perfect conversion rate in apenalty shoot-out.[13] In the semi-finals againstLevante they fell behind in both legs but found an equaliser (throughIñigo Martínez in the first match and aRaúl García penalty in the return) to again force extra time; the winner came from a deflectedÁlex Berenguer shot with eight minutes of the extended period remaining,[14] reaching the final for the 39th time (one back in1904 was never played and the cup awarded to theBilbao side in awalkover).[15]
At the time of the clubs qualifying for the 2021 event, the2020 Copa del Rey final between Athletic Bilbao andReal Sociedad was still to be played, with its rescheduled date of 3 April 2021 giving theBiscay club a unique opportunity to win the competition twice inside a fortnight[16] The delay also meant their current head coachMarcelino was the most recent manager to win the competition, having defeated Barcelona in the2019 final while in charge ofValencia. That was the sixth consecutive final for theBlaugrana, and the first defeat for theCatalans since2014; the sequence of finals is an outright record and the run of wins is a shared record along with Real Madrid in the 1900s and Athletic in the 1930s.[15] When the 2020 final was eventually played, Athletic fell to a 1–0 defeat.[17]
Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao had played each other in eight previous finals of the tournament; Barcelona won in1920,1942,1953,2009,2012 and the most recent in2015, and Athletic in1932 and1984.[15][18] Their 2021 meeting made the fixture the most played in the history of Copa Del Rey finals, breaking a tied record withAthletic v Real Madrid[note 2] (the third pairing of the trio,El Clásico between Madrid and Barcelona, had been played seven times at that point).[15]
The sided had also met frequently inSupercopa de España finals; indeed all of Athletic's four appearances (1983,2009,2015 and2021) in that competition were against Barcelona. The most recent of these was exactly three months prior to the Copa del Rey final and played at the same venue (behind closed doors due to the pandemic), with Athletic winning 3–2 after extra time to claim the trophy with a winning goal fromIñaki Williams.[20] By reaching the Copa del Rey final, both teams were assured qualification for the four-team2022 Supercopa de España, giving Athletic the chance to defend their title.
In the2020–21 La Liga meetings between the clubs (both played in January 2021 due to scheduling issues, two weeks either side of their Supercopa match),Barça had the edge with two wins (3–2 atSan Mamés, 2–1 at Camp Nou,Lionel Messi scoring three of the goals) though the close scorelines in all three matches demonstrated the narrow margins between the sides overall.
| Athletic Bilbao | Round | Barcelona | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponent | Result | Opponent | Result | ||
| Bye | First round | Bye | |||
| Bye | Second round | Bye | |||
| UD Ibiza | 2–1 (A) | Round of 32 | Cornellà | 2–0 (a.e.t.) (A) | |
| Alcoyano | 2–1 (A) | Round of 16 | Rayo Vallecano | 2–1 (A) | |
| Real Betis | 1–1(4–1p) (A) | Quarter-finals | Granada | 5–3 (a.e.t.) (A) | |
| Levante | 1–1 (H),2–1 (a.e.t.) (A) | Semi-finals | Sevilla | 0–2 (A),3–0 (a.e.t.) (H) | |
Key: (H) = Home; (A) = Away
          Athletic Bilbao |   Barcelona |
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Man of the Match: Assistant referees:[2] | Match rules
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