Barcelona cruise into fifth round of Copa del Rey

Posted Thursday, December 06, 2018 by PA

Barcelona cruised into the fifth round of the Copa del Rey with a comfortable 4-1 win over Cultural Leonesa at the Nou Camp.

The LaLiga leaders made a number of changes for the clash with the Segunda Division Group 1 side with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho all rested.

Leading 1-0 from the first leg, the hosts came close to conceding the opening goal when Adrian Mancebo’s shot was saved by Jasper Cillessen.

🏆 On to the Round of 16! 👏⚽ FC Barcelona 4 – Cultural Leonesa 1 (5-1 agg.)👟 Munir, Malcom & Denis Suárez (x2) / Señé🔵🔴 #CopaBarça pic.twitter.com/4XlLzEk0lk
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 5, 2018

Barcelona’s first goal came in the 19th minute when Munir El Haddadi capitalised on a perfect pass from Ivan Rakitic to fire home past Jorge Palatsi.

When Denis Suarez doubled the home side’s advantage in the 26th minute with a stunning long range effort, it looked too much for the visitors to keep their hopes of progressing alive.

NICE PASS, KID! Barça''s 19-year-old midfielder Riqui Puig — who''s making his official debut tonight — got his first career assist on Denis''s goal a few minutes ago! 💪 pic.twitter.com/orGnd0X2iw
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 5, 2018

Malcom made it 3-0 on the night for Barcelona and 4-0 on aggregate just before half-time, showing no fear to power home a header from a Rakitic delivery.

With the tie all but won, Ernesto Valverde withdrew the influential Rakitic with the weekend derby with Espanyol in mind.

Today''s attendance: 76,398, a record for Member Solidarity Day.
Thank you to all, and enjoy the game! 👏👏 #CopaBarça pic.twitter.com/siJwHOihhs
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 5, 2018

The visitors pulled a goal back in the 54th minute through Josep Sene but it turned out to be nothing more than a consolation.

Midway through the second half, Barcelona introduced youngster Riqui Puig from the bench for his debut and he showed his qualities by setting up Suarez for his second goal of the night to round off the scoring.