Barcelona’s Spanish forward Ansu Fati (left) vies with Intercity’s Spanish defender Guillem Jaime during Spain’s Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) round of 32, first leg, football match between Intercity CF and FC Barcelona at the Jose Rico Perez stadium in Alicante, on January 4, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Barcelona struggled to advance in its Copa del Rey debut, needing extra time to defeat third-division club Intercity 4-3.
Ansu Fati scored the winning goal for Barcelona in the 104th minute on Wednesday night after the Catalan club relinquished a lead three times in the 3-3 draw in regulation.
Oriol Solde scored a hat-trick for the hosts in the city of Alicante in southeastern Spain.
Barcelona, playing without some of its regular starters, scored with Ronald Araujo in the fourth minute, Ousmane Dembele in the 66th and Raphinha in the 77th. Solde scored in the 59th, 74th and 86th minutes.
“The Copa is like this, we know it, it’s not easy,” Araujo said. “It’s important that we learn from it and correct our mistakes.” The game was played not long after Spain’s administrative court for sports upheld a three-game suspension for Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski in the Spanish league, taking him out of the league match against Atletico Madrid on Sunday. He had not been in the squad for the Copa match against Intercity.
The suspension had been lifted by a court of disputes after an appeal by Barcelona. The Poland striker had been allowed to play in last weekend’s 1-1 league draw against Espanyol, which later challenged the result of the derby saying it was harmed by the unexpected decision by the Madrid court to temporarily lift the suspension.
Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia and Real Betis had not played until this round because they are part of the Spanish Super Cup that will begin next week.
Madrid advanced past fourth-division club Cacereno 1-0 on Tuesday.
Atletico advances
Marcos Llorente and teenager Pablo Barrios scored a goal in each half as Atletico Madrid eliminated second-division Oviedo 2-0.
Antoine Griezmann helped set up both goals for Diego Simeone’s team.
Atletico played without João Félix, Rodrigo De Paul and Stefan Savic.
Other results
Sevilla routed Linares Deportivo 5-0 with a hat trick by Youssef En-Nesyri, while Real Sociedad beat Logrones 1-0 with a first-half goal by Robert Navarro.
Mallorca defeated Pontevedra 2-0 with a pair of goals in extra time after a 0-0 draw in regulation, while second-division club Alavés beat top-flight Valladolid 1-0.
Valladolid, owned by former Brazil striker Ronaldo, played a man down from the fifth minute because of a red card to Zouhair Feddal.
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