Neymar brace's up as barca reach cup final

Barcelona's Neymar scored twice and Luis Suarez
was also on target as they beat Villarreal 3-1 on
Wednesday and 6-2 on aggregate to reach their
fourth King's Cup final in five years where they
will face Athletic Bilbao.
Bilbao won 2-0 at Espanyol on Wednesday and
3-1 on aggregate, Aritz Aduriz and Xabier Etxeita
scoring in the first half for Athletic to set up a
repeat of the 2012 cup final which Barca won.
It will Be Barca's first final with Luis Enrique at
the helm but the coach is not getting carried
away.
"It is very good but we now need to concentrate
on other things. We are happy obviously," Luis
Enrique told reporters.
"We didn't want an end-to-end game but one
where we had control. We wanted to be able to
control it without any difficult moments.
"They (Villarreal) had two or three chances in the
first half and then we had more control after
that. We wanted to win the game but by always
being under control."
Villarreal were dreaming of overturning the first-
leg defeat at the Nou Camp to reach their first
final but their hopes were hit when Neymar
scored after three minutes.
Barcelona eased into the Copa del Rey final as
they completed a 6-2 aggregate win over Villarreal
with a 3-1 win at El Madrigal on Wednesday.
Luis Enrique's men will face Athletic Bilbao in the
final for the third time in five years on May 30
after the Basques beat Espanyol 2-0 to progress
3-1 on aggregate.
Neymar had missed a penalty in Barca's 3-1 first
leg win three weeks ago, but made amends after
just three minutes when he turned home Lionel
Messi's cross.
Jonathan dos Santos gave the hosts hope with an
equaliser on the night against his old club, but
Villarreal's chances of a famous comeback faded
when Tomas Pina was shown a straight red card
for a heavy challenge on Neymar.
Luis Suarez slotted home his 11th goal of the
season to make it 2-1 before Neymar rounded off
the scoring from Xavi's cross late on.
"I am very happy to be in the final again and we
have to congratulate the team," said Neymar.
"Villarreal are a great team with a lot of high-
quality players. We knew it was going to be a
difficult game and that is why we started so well.
We scored very quickly and that helped us."
However, victory also came at a cost as Sergio
Busquets was stretchered off in the first-half with
a high ankle sprain that could keep him sidelined
for a significant couple of weeks with Barca set
to face Real Madrid in La Liga on March 22.
"It is the bad news of the night without a shadow
of a doubt," said Enrique.
"I can't give a diagnosis before the doctors look
at him. We know he will be out for a while, how
long the doctors will decide."
Enrique started Javier Mascherano and Suarez
despite both being one yellow card away from
missing the final and that decision was vindicated
inside three minutes as both were involved in the
move that let to Neymar's opener.
The ball eventually found its way to Messi and
his tantalising in-swinging cross was looped over
Sergio Asenjo by the Brazilian captain.
Villarreal refused to be beaten despite that early
setback as Ikechukwu Uche fired into the side-
netting, while Marc-Andre Ter Stegen denied
Luciano Vietto and Denis Cheryshev.
Marcelino's men finally got their reward when
Dos Santos slotted home Jaume Costa's cross at
the back post six minutes before the break.
And Barca suffered a further blow as Busquets
had to be stretchered off after Pina stood on his
right ankle in the build-up to the goal.
Villarreal's momentum was lost 20 minutes into
the second period, though, when this time Pina
was punished for a dangerous challenge on
Neymar from behind.
Suarez then scored for the third consecutive
game as he latched onto Mascherano's ball over
the top and kept his composure to round Asenjo
before rolling the ball into the unguarded net.
And Neymar notched his second of the night with
an easy header from another sumptuous cross,
this time from Xavi.
Athletic ensured there wouldn't be a Barcelona
derby in the final as first-half goals from Aritz
Aduriz and Borja Etxeita gave them a comfortable
advantage.
The 23-time winners will be hoping it is third time
lucky against the Catalans having lost 4-1 and
3-0 to Pep Guardiola's Barca in 2009 and 2012.

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