Barcelona beat Alaves 3-1 to lift their 29th Copa del Rey trophy – a Spanish record, while also winning the cup for the 3rd time on the bounce. It was Lionel Messi – who else – who was the star of the show as he helped Luis Enrique end his spell as the manager of the Catalan giants on a high, while also ensuring that the Blaugrana don’t finish the season without a trophy.
Messi opened the scoring with a nicely placed finish from the edge of the box after a quick one-two with Neymar. Theo Hernandez – who has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid – equalised only minutes later with a peach of a free-kick from the right-hand side. Two goals at the stroke of half-time effectively killed the tie off, first it was Neymar, who scored to put his side ahead, bundling home Andre Gomes’ cross – albeit from an offside position, before a magical run from Lionel Messi was finished off by Paco Alcacer to round off the win.
Messi played like a man possessed as he scored a sublime opener before tearing apart the Alaves defence cutting in from the right before playing a backheel pass to Alcacer to bundle home for the 3rd goal. The trophy was Messi’s 30th with Barcelona – a record. The Argentine sensation went past Real Madrid legend Alfredo di Stefano to become the player with most goals in the history of Copa del Rey.
Twitter, as you would expect, exploded after another magical performance from the Messi-ah, and here are the best tweets:
Messi-merization!
The insanity by Messi!
The inevitable but rather inutile comparisons...
Spare a thought for Theo Hernandez, what a strike!
Unbelievable!
Congratulations Barcelona!
Adios Lucho...
Meanwhile, Neymar is having a poor season...
