Athletic Club three-2 Barcelona (AET): Player scores as reigning champions dumped out of Copa del Rey

Last yr's Copa del Rey finalists met at the round of 16 stage on Thursday night, as Barcelona exited the competition after a thrilling 3-2 extra-time defeat to avengers Athletic Bilbao.

Xavi's side two times got here from behind in regular time - courtesy of desires from Ferran Torres and Pedri in either 1/2 - but have been ultimately placed to bed via a penalty from Iker Muniain.

The groups have been playing every different days after returning to Spain, following mutual sadness within the Saudi Arabia-based Supercopa event wherein Real Madrid came out triumphant.

In what turned into a blistering start for the hosts, the deadlock became broken in below two minutes. Nico Williams, inflicting Jordi Alba all sorts of issues, launched into a surging run down the proper flank earlier than finding Muniain, who produced a moment of magic to open the scoring.

Picking up Williams' pull-lower back the Athletic Club captain set himself at the left facet of the penalty area, earlier than someway getting a great aggregate of whip and curl to loft the ball over Marc-Andre ter Stegen into the a long way corner.

Xavi's guys reacted nicely to the setback, however, and step by step discovered their feet within the tie, notching an equaliser after 20 mins. Torres got his first purpose in Barcelona shades, bending the ball sumptuously into the some distance corner after receiving Sergio Busquets' bypass into the area.

Barca may also have drawn stage however, within the genuine spirit of a cup tie, momentum then switched again. Muniain, Oscar De Marcos, Williams, Oihan Sancet and Raul Garcia all should have determined the net earlier than the referee blew for half-time - but a mixture of slow finishing and solid goalkeeping saved the traveling aspect as the sport reached its halfway point.

Williams compelled Ter Stegen into another shop minutes after the resumption of play although, normally speaking, neither goalkeeper turned into worked too heavily after the c program languageperiod. That changed into until the eighty fifth minute when the game erupted.

With five minutes ultimate, Bilbao sooner or later broke via Barcelona's resilient closing line and restored their lead. Minutes after substitute Inaki Williams' tried move worried the traffic through falling flush onto the crossbar, the hosts scored their 2d of the night from a hard and fast-piece scenario.

After an almighty scuffle within the six-backyard field, the ball broke to the lower back post in which Inigo Martinez - apparently trying his hardest to miss - just managed to poke the ball over the road, sending San Mames crazy.