It was late and they were tired, but with four minutes left and long after midnight in Seville, everyone prepared for penalties, Jules Koundé found the strength to send a shot flying into the net and the Barcelona fans into raptures. The fireworks were lit and the men in blue and red sprinted towards him from all sides: here, at last, it was. An epic Copa del Rey final, a first clásico final in 11 years, had a winner. They had been a goal up and a goal down, they had thought they had a last-minute penalty to win it only to have it taken away, but now it was 3-2 and the Catalan side had done it.
Done? Not quite, but very nearly. On an extraordinary night, there was still one last opportunity for Real Madrid when Kylian Mbappé was fouled in the area and the referee, Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, pointed to the spot, only for the linesman’s flag to be up. They had fought and rebelled, but they were defeated and, in a chaotic end, when all the emotion exploded at the final whistle, somewhere in the noise and the pandemonium they had three players shown red cards: Lucas Vázquez, Antonio Rüdiger and Jude Bellingham. The German had to be held back from going at the referee.
