The final of the Copa del Rey was the last football accent on the Spanish playgrounds. Barça's players wanted to finish the season in a good style and reach for the fifth King's Cup in a row. The plans of Ernesto Valverde's charges were to be thwarted by Valencian players, who have had a successful campaign behind them. They finished fourth in the league competition and the possibility to perform in today's finals was a reward for their hard work.

Squads:

Barcelona: Cillessen- Alba, Lenglet, Pique, Semedo (46' Malcom)- Rakitić (77' Alena), Busquets, Arthur (46' Vidal)- Coutinho, Messi, Sergi Roberto

Valencia: Domenech- Gaya, Paulista, Garay, Wass- Guedes, Parejo (65' Kondogbia), Coquelin, Soler- Gameiro (72' Piccini), Moreno (88' Diakhaby)

Everyone present at the pre-game press conference could have thought that it was about Barça's two-legged game with Liverpool. For most of the time Leo Messi remembered the defeat suffered in the clash with Jürgen Klopp's team. You could see that Leo is still feeling guilty. Today he had the opportunity to improve his mood by winning the King's Cup.

Five minutes after the start of the meeting, Valencia could have left for the lead. Lenglet behaved badly, giving football straight to Moreno's feet. The Spanish attacker passed Cillessen and shot him at the goal, which was suddenly scored by Pique. Blaugrany's defender knocked the ball out of the goal line and it was still a tie.

Messi and the company gained more and more advantage over time. . . but only in possession of the ball. Dangerous actions were like a cure. Marcelino's charges worked very well in defense and tried to pose a threat from counterattacks. They took their first blow in the 22nd minute. Gameiro found himself perfectly in this action, who easily dodged Lenglet and put the ball into the goal.

After losing the goal, the Barcelona players did not set off to mass attacks. However, they decided to exchange an infinite number of passes in the middle zone of the pitch. As they approached Valencia's penal field, the stairs began. Messi and the company have no idea how to dismantle the tightly set defense of their rivals. The players from Estadio Mestalla had a well-defined plan for this meeting and its implementation was very good for them, because already in 38 minutes we had 0:2. Jordi Alba lost a cross-country match with Soler, who sent the ball straight to Moreno's head. Valencia's attacker simply couldn't waste such an excellent opportunity.

After the faces of the Barcelona players, you could see that they were in shock. They certainly didn't expect such a good defensive game and deadly effectiveness from Valencian players. After the break, the Spanish champions finally had to wake up if they were still dreaming of doublet. One thing was certain - emotions in the second part of the match could not be missing.

Ernesto Valverde did not intend to wait any longer with changes and from the beginning of the second half we watched Vidal and Malcom on the pitch. After the break, Messi looked a lot better. The Argentinean was very active and finally posed a threat to his rival's goal, as in 56th minute. Sam rushed with the ball into the penalty box, passed a few rivals and unfortunately he hit only the post. Arturo Vidal had the opportunity to make a statement, but decided to adapt the level of the game to his teammates and could not direct the ball to the grid from a few meters.

Time passed inexorably and Valencia was getting closer to the final triumph. Unfortunately, Marcelino's charges, in the opposite team was a guy from another planet, who at the end of the match decided to throw his highest turnover. Messi with each successive action was getting closer to defeating Domenech and finally achieved his goal, at the same time beating another record. Barça made contact, and there were 10 minutes to go before the end of the meeting.

As it turned out later, even five extra minutes were not enough for Blaugran's players to make a tie. It was far too late for them to make up for their losses. Ernesto Valverde's charges were supposed to give at least a little joy to their fans at the end of the season and served a show of helplessness. It's happened - there won't be any doublet.