Neymar scores, Barca puts one foot in the King's Cup semi-finals

Without the services of Messi and Suarez, Barca still achieved high performance in attack to win 2-1 at Bilbao's field in the first leg of the King's Cup quarter-finals.

El Haddadi and Neymar help Barca overcome difficulties. Photo: Reuters

Goals: Aduriz 89' - El Haddadi 18', Neymar 25'

Meeting Bilbao just four days after their 6-0 win in round 20 of Liga, Barca showed that the absence of two of their three most important strikers was not too big of a problem. In the first 25 minutes, Munir El Haddadi and Neymar scored consecutively to put the visitors ahead by two goals. Bilbao had to wait until the 89th minute to reduce the score to 1-2.

With the away win, Barca has one foot in the semi-finals of the King's Cup this season. In the second leg of the quarter-finals next week, Barca can lose 0-1 at home at the Nou Camp and still have a ticket to the next round.

Due to his suspension from the Copa del Rey, Luis Suarez was unable to play in the away match in Bilbao. Messi was also absent because coach Luis Enrique did not want to take any risks. Last weekend, M10 was suspected of having a hamstring injury and had to leave the field right after halftime of the match in round 20 of Liga. Without the services of two of the three most important strikers, Enrique showed his cool hand when pairing Neymar with El Haddadi and Arda Turan. These three players all played well, in which the first two directly scored goals, while the third played the role of creator.

Having the home advantage, Bilbao caused Barca a lot of trouble in the early stages of the match by limiting the opponent's time and space to control the ball. However, this tactic could not be maintained for too long due to the difference in class. In the 15th minute, Neymar almost opened the score with a curling shot from 20 meters. In this situation, goalkeeper Iago Herrerin showed his excellence when he jumped up and pushed the ball over the bar.

Barca were missing two of their three best strikers but still had midfielders capable of making a difference. This was evident in the two goals in the first half. In the 18th minute, Turan passed the ball to Rakitic, who was running down the right flank and crossed inside, where El Haddadi needed just one simple touch to open the scoring. Seven minutes later, Barca's midfield needed just two passes to get the ball into the Bilbao penalty area, where Herrerin's misjudgement allowed Neymar to tap into an empty net to make it 2-0.

Bilbao also tried hard but were not lucky enough to make a difference. At the end of the first half, the home team did not get a penalty after Aduriz went down in the box under pressure from Javier Mascherano. According to the referee, this situation did not constitute a foul.

The match became more tense after the break. Bilbao actively played rough to stop Barca's attack, and received six yellow cards as a result. Aduriz was even lucky not to be sent off after a situation where he kicked Neymar in the back.

The home side had to wait until the end of the match to have any real chances to score, with Aduriz taking advantage of one of them, finishing from a Mikel San Jose pass. On the other two occasions, goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen made excellent saves for Barca.

In another quarter-final first leg, Atletico Madrid drew 0-0 at Celta Vigo. The two sides will now face each other at the Vicente Calderon in the return leg next week.

According to VNE