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The King of Cups is back on top

Barcelona won the Cup in brilliant style without losing a single game in the entire competition. In the final they were much better than Bilbao in a 1-4 victory in Valencia. The King of Cups was back on top.

Eleven years after their last triumph, Barça won the Cup again and at the same venue as in 1998, Mestalla in Valencia. None of the players in the current squad had ever won the Cup with Barça. It was the 100th title in the club’s history.

Wins in last 32 and 16

Josep Guardiola used the Cup to give game time to the players who were least used in the League. In the last 32 against Benidorm, it was Bojan who grabbed the winner in the first leg ( 0-1 ) while Messi did the honours in the return match ( 1-0 ).

In the next round Barça came up against more formidable opponents in Atlético Madrid with Agüero and Forlán. At Calderón in early January, Messi had one of his best games ever in a Barça shirt to decide the encounter with a hat-trick ( 1-3 ). The return leg at Camp Nou was little more than a formality with Gudjohnsen and Bojan scoring in a 2-1 win. The team was through to the quarter-finals on the back of four wins.

Tougher time in quarter and semi-finals

The quarter-final was a different kettle of fish. Espanyol and Barça drew 0-0 in the last derby to be played at Montjuïc, then in the second leg two goals by Bojan and another by Piqué were enough to take Barça through in spite of a late comeback by Espanyol ( 3-2 ).

The semi-final was equally tough even though Barça had left the tie nicely lined up with a 2-0 win at Camp Nou against Mallorca. At the ONO Stadium, however, Guardiola’s team was reduced to ten men when 1-0 down as Cáceres gave away the penalty that saw him sent off. But then along came Pinto, the starting keeper in the Cup, to save the penalty and turn the game around. Messi equalised to leave the final score reading 1-1 .

Dream final

Even before it was played everyone agreed that Bilbao v Barça was the dream final as the two sides with the longest tradition and biggest number of titles in the Cup went head-to-head. For Barça fans the dream came true at the end of 90 minutes during which Touré, Messi, Bojan and Xavi nullified Toquero’s early goal ( 1-4 ).

The title gained at Mestalla was Guardiola’s first as manager of the club. His side dominated the competition and in the final delivered attacking and powerful total football.

Click here to see our special feature on the Cup winners.