January 05, (THEWILL) – Barcelona narrowly avoided an upset in the Copa del Rey, edging past third-tier team, Intercity, 4-3 in extra time of a thriller goal-post to goal-post encounter at the Estadio José Rico Perez.
Despite taking an early lead through Ronald Araujo’s header, Barcelona struggled to shake off the determined Intercity side who were egged on by their home supporters and who were giving a proper account of themselves.
Oriol Soldevila was the hero of the hosts as he played a game that will live long in his memory for scoring a hat-trick of equalisers against the vastly more superior opponents. However, Ansu Fati made sure of Barca’s progress with a late goal sealed the win for the Blaugrana.
The match was marked by several back and forth moments, with Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha also scoring for Barcelona, and Vadik Murria assisting on two of Soldevila’s goals as Intercity defiantly refused to stay behind.
In the end, it was Fati’s deflected shot that proved to be the difference, as the 31-time Copa del Rey champions advanced to the last 16 of the competition after extra time. Barca are next in action on Sunday against Atletico Madrid while Intercity play Eldense.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
