Luis Suárez scored twice, and forced an own goal, as the Catalans stormed into the Copa del Rey final with a 3-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.

Barcelona came to the home of their greatest rivals needing a victory to take them to a record sixth consecutive Copa del Rey final and while that task may appear titanic for most teams, Barça are not most teams.

Two goals from Luis Suárez and an own goal from Raphaël Varane completing a 3-0 win to go with the 6-2, 4-3, 3-2, 4-0 and 3-1 victories they have collected here in the last decade.

If those were successes secured on a superiority that was often startling, this was different, but in the end Barcelona went through. 

They had struggled for an hour but survived and prevailed. It was not easy to explain, except through extreme efficiency: two of Barcelona’s four shots were on target and they scored three. Madrid had 14 in total and did not score.

 “We’re sad because we wanted to reach the final. We fell with honour: we weren’t ruthless, they were very ruthless,” the Madrid manager, Santi Solari, said. The Barcelona manager, Ernesto Valverde, admitted his team had not always played well but had displayed “pegada” – the knockout punch.

Nor was this about a familiar genius: so dependent on Lionel Messi lately, this time his influence was largely incidental; instead, the combination of Ousmane Dembélé and Suárez, neither of whom were especially sparkling in truth, defeated Madrid. The Uruguayan has scored 11 in 13 clásicos.

Until Suárez scored the first goal a little after half-time, that appeared barely plausible. 

Madrid, who had the advantage of an away goal from the 1-1 first-leg draw, seemed more likely to progress, their path to the final passing through Vinicius, the 18-year-old who has revived their season. But if the threat was always there, it went unrealised. 

Barcelona for their part threatened rarely but when they struck they were deadly.

The Guardian 
BDST: 1032 HRS, FEB 28, 2019
RS