Barcelona and Real Madrid will meet in the 2025 Copa Del Rey final on the 26th April after they both came through their semi-finals this week, but there was plenty of drama in both matches.
There was an amazing symmetry to the semis as both clashes ended in a 5-4 aggregate win. Barca edged their second leg against Atletico Madrid with a goal from Ferran Torres after the two teams shared eight goals in the first leg in Catalonia. Meanwhile after Los Blancos had snuck a 1-0 lead way from the Basque, they left it very late to emerge from their home tie against Real Sociedad with a 4-4 draw.
After the first leg ended 4-4 we expected more goals between Atleti and Barca on Wednesday and the Catalans certainly looked up for the task as they took the game to their hosts from the off. Lamine Yamal came close to opening the scoring when he fired a shot inches wide after being teed up by midfielder Pedri; and then Torres had a shot blocked after good work from Raphinha. Defender Jules Kounde was the next to try his luck and he too came close but the deadlock was finally broken when Yamal threaded the ball through to Torres and he slid his shot into the left hand corner giving Atletico keeper Juan Musso no chance.
Barca stayed on the front foot, pressing for a second with efforts from Raphinha and Yamal and Atleti eventually had an attack on 33 minutes, when Antoine Griezmann swung over a free-kick and Robin Le Normand headed over.
Alexander Sorloth had scored in all three of his appearances against Barcelona this season, all as a substitute, and the Norwegian striker started on the bench again on Wednesday night. So it wasn’t exactly what the Blaugrana wanted to see when Sorloth climbed off that bench at half time, particularly when he went close to levelling just five minutes into the second half. But Musso remained the busier keeper making excellent saves to deny Yamal and Raphinha.
Sorloth gave impetus to the Atleti attack and he almost broke the offside trap to get a shot away on 69 minutes and a minute later, as Los Rojiblancos started to throw men forward, Griezmann too was caught offside by the well regimented Catalan defence. The greater threat came still from Barcelona though as Musso somehow kept out a close range shot from Robert Lewandowski and then stopped another effort from Yamal.
As the game entered injury time Atleti had one more push and Jose Gimenez met a cross from Nahuel Molina, but his header flew over and so with it, Los Rojiblancos’ Copa del Rey hopes disappeared into the night sky.
Sociedad’s nearly night
Before a ball was kicked this week, the Copa Del Rey 2025 betting odds here at SBOTOP made Real Madrid the clear tournament favourites. But they had one heck of a battle to make it to the final as Real Sociedad looked anything but underdogs as they approached the end of the 90 minutes with their noses in front. After a run of poor results Sociedad remembered how to win last week when they beat Real Valladolid 2-1 and on Tuesday night they gave Los Blancos a real scare.
Real Madrid started the tie with a one goal lead but that was cancelled out when Ander Barrenetxea scored the opener on 16 minutes. Young Brazil striker Endrick had already scored four goals in the competition and he made it five when he levelled for Real with a beautifully chipped effort on the half hour and Los Blancos looked comfortable again. But two strikes, the first from Pablo Marin and the second from Mikel Oyarzabal, both with the help of a deflection, gave the Basque side the advantage with just ten minutes left on the clock. The hosts hit back again when Jude Bellingham levelled the tie with a close range effort and it looked like the Madrid side had won it in normal time when Aurelien Tchouameni headed in from a Rodrygo corner. But three minutes into added time Oyarzabal had the freedom of the Santiago Bernabeu to head the equaliser home, totally unmarked.
A tense extra time could have gone either way but it was the favourites who eventually came out on top when Arda Guler swung over a corner and centre back Anton Rudiger powered home the winner, leaving Los Blancos fans to relax when they watched the Copa Del Rey 2025 highlights on Wednesday night.
Los Blancos and the Blaugrana are in a fierce battle for the La Liga title and both sides are still in the Champions League. And now, they have another date to put in their diaries…the El Clasico story has no end.
●●●
CHECK OUT OUR BLOG FOR MORE FOOTBALL STORIES & ODDS
Stay updated with everything sports and betting.
Follow us on social Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
