A well-played and patient Athletic Club team extinguished FC Barcelona's cup dreams.

There had not even been two minutes played at San Mamés when young Nico Williams picked up the pace on the right wing and ran from Jordi Alba before sending a pass in the direction of Iker Muniain, who caught Marc-André ter Stegen on the wrong leg, why Muniain could chip the ball over the German goalkeeper.

The lead goal painted a fair picture of an Athletic Club team that was in complete control of the match, and that was also the case until 20 minutes had elapsed. Here Ferran Torres cut into the field, from where he with a dream shot sent the ball up to the farthest goal corner and thus reduced with his debut goal.

Barca's equalizer opened up the match completely, although Nico Williams constantly created problems for Alba. The left-back veteran constantly fell short of his 13-year-younger compatriot. Shortly before the break, however, it was only a phantom save from Ter Stegen that prevented Athletic Club from taking the lead - again.

The talented midfielder, Nico Gonzalez, who on Thursday was awarded Philippe Coutinho's former back number, came on the field from the start of the second half. It was a very quiet start to the second half, with Barca in particular having a hard time creating space on the pitch, while Athletic Club patiently waited for an opportunity for a counter-attack.

With a quarter of an hour left in tonight's Copa del Rey semi-final in the Basque Country, the match was still wide open. It started to smell like a goalless second half and extended playing time in Bilbao. If you could smell a goalless second half at San Mamés, then you were let down by your sense of smell.

The goal scorer from the first half, Muniain, sent a free kick into the Barca field, where Ter Stegen managed to fend off the first header. However, Iñigo Martínez did not manage to connect with it, as his team mates had hoped, and the ball went out.

The 26-year-old winger Álex Berenguer was close to knocking the last nail in Barca's trophy. This time, however, the goal was disallowed, which is why the Catalan guests could still cling to a flimsy final hope.

Initially, four minutes were added to the regular playing time, and when more than half of the extra time had passed, Dani Alves sent a pass into the Athletic Club field, giving rise to clumsy play. Pedri took advantage of the confusion to place Julen Agirrezabala with a fantastic finish, which gave Barca another 30 minutes to chase a place in the quarter-finals.

Substitute Inaki Williams stood for the first chance in extra time, but the Athletic Club striker's shot slipped past the goal post. Then it was another substitute, Barca defender Sergiño Dest, who came to the plate, but even though Agirrezabala was misplaced, he still managed to save the American's shot attempt.

Shortly before the break in extra time, there was once again drama at San Mamés. It was appealed that Alba had taken the arm to help in the small field, and a VAR review concluded that there was a penalty kick for the Athletic Club. Muniain did not fail from the 11-meter spot and thus became a double goal scorer.

It was a Barca team on their knees that kicked off perhaps the last quarter of the match. Pedri and substitute Ansu Fati had to retire with injuries - the former was replaced by Martin Braithwaite. However, the Dane could not prevent Athletic Club from advancing to the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey - at the expense of the Catalan big club.

Torres admittedly seemed to equalize for Barca, but the third equalizer in the match for the visitors did not become a reality. The former Mancester City talent's second goal of the match was disallowed because the young Spaniard was offside. The failed goal turned out to be Barca's last convulsion at San Mamés.