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Barcelona needed an extra-time intervention from Ansu Fati to squeak past Intercity 4-3 and advance to the Copa del Rey round of 16
Barcelona are safely through to the Copa del Rey Round of 16, but the Blaugrana needed 120 minutes of action to defeat third-tier side Intercity 4-3 in extra-time in a wild game in the city of Alicante.
Intercity vs Barcelona first half
Barca began the game as most people expected them to, on the front foot. Ronald Araujo needed just four minutes to score on his return, heading home a corner from Pablo Torre to give the Blaugrana an early lead.
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Araujo was involved in the other major moment of the half when Pinan went on a one-man counter-attack for Intercity, rounded Inaki Pena and passed the ball towards the net for what seemed like an easy goal, but Araujo came out of nowhere to deny the goal with an amazing goal-line clearance.
After that scare, it was all Barca for the rest of the half, and the Blaugrana had several moments where they came close to creating a real chance, but they lacked the final ball to truly unlock the Intercity defense.
They almost scored twice on set pieces, and Ferran Torres missed a huge chance before halftime. However, Barcelona went into the break looking pretty comfortable against a poor team, but they still needed to build on the one-goal lead to finish the job in the second half.
Intercity vs Barcelona second half
Intercity switched from a back five to a more attacking 4-4-2 formation at halftime as they sensed the opportunity to get back into the game.
The hosts deserved a goal, and they got it when a corner into the box was not cleared by the Barca defense and fell to former Barcelona academy player Oriol Soldevila who scored a nice volley to make it 1-1 with 30 minutes to go.
Barca needed a big wake-up call to get back in control of the game, and they stepped up the pace enough to go ahead once again, after a beautiful assist from Gavi and a great finish from Ousmane Dembele who chipped the keeper to put the Blaugrana in front.
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Intercity refused to give up and once again got back in the game after a cross from Romero found the head of Soldevila who scored his second on the night and set up an electric finish in the final 15 minutes.
The Blaugrana responded immediately to go ahead once again when a cross from Jordi Alba was met by Raphinha at the far post, but the feeling was still that this one was far from over and Intercity would give everything they had to force extra-time.
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Intercity found the equalizer in the 86th minute after Marcos Alonso lost an easy ball in midfield and Soldevila completed a hat-trick and made it 3-3 in Alicante.
Intercity vs Barcelona extra-time
Barca finally found the go-ahead goal when a perfect cross from Raphinha along the ground was smashed home by Ansu Fati, who made it 4-3 and gave the Blaugrana a crucial lead to defend in the final 15 minutes.
Intercity could not create a chance to get another equalizer, and the final whistle came to end a tough night for Barca
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