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Messi’s cup final magic outshone by delightful De Jong

The morning after the night before and there’ll be a few sore heads in Barcelona, because that was a Copa del Rey final performance worthy of all-night celebrations.

Barca’s magnificence against Athletic Club was on a par with the epic 2018 win over Sevilla, and the 2021 edition perhaps even edged it.

The Catalans were dominant in every aspect and, for once, the team that didn’t want to play football and was just hoping for crumbs on the counter-attack, were put to the sword.

We’d already seen too many times this season those outfits that were content to sit back and allow Barca to pass the ball around for the most part, only to hit Koeman’s side on the break with a smash and grab.