This time it’s our turn, Carlo Ancelotti had said, but even he couldn’t have imagined it would end up this good. Barcelona had won three clasicos in a row; by the final minutes of the fourth, though, it was Karim Benzema who stood in the corner of the Camp Nou, arms wide, smile wider. In front of him, the home fans were heading for the exit and so were their team. The Ballon d’Or holder had just completed a hat-trick, slipping the ball past Marc-André ter Stegen to make it 4-0 on the night, 4-1 on aggregate, to carry Real Madrid into the Copa del Rey final for the first time in nine years.
It was the kind of image that can become immediately iconic, something in Benzema’s expression that spoke of the ease, the superiority, with which Madrid finally had won this. Barcelona had begun well but fell behind just before the break and had been broken for the best part of half an hour. With four men missing – Pedri, Ousmane Dembélé, Frenkie de Jong and Andreas Christensen – and obliged to open up in pursuit of a place in the final, the flaws they have hidden so well, domestically at least, were exposed again. Twelve points clear in the league, there will be no double. Instead, there are doubts that run deeper than just this defeat.
Madrid may have taken a little while, Ancelotti talking afterwards about their ability to “suffer” in the first half and Xavi not unjustly insisting that the opening goal had changed everything, but they accelerated away.
Here was a reminder that they are still the European champions – “the pan is at the right temperature again,” the coach said – and Xavi’s side had little response, no rebellion. By the end, Barcelona looked a tired team, exposed; Madrid meanwhile reasserted their status, claiming a place in the final against Osasuna, and the joint biggest margin of victory they had ever achieved here. It is almost 30 years since they beat Barcelona so heavily, and 60 since they did so here. A one-goal deficit from the first leg was not just overturned; it was made to look absurd.
As for Benzema, he looked a level above everyone, scoring his second hat-trick in four days. “When he’s physically right he makes the difference; he’s one of the best players, not just strikers, in the world,” Ancelotti said.
If the fourth had been smooth, the goal that started it all, shifting everything, was the perfect demonstration of what Madrid do so well, and precisely the kind of transition that Barcelona feared: 19 seconds in which they went straight through their opponents, from one goalline to the other. Alejandro Balde’s ball in found Robert Lewandowski and his side-footed volley, struck clean and hard, was saved by Thibaut Courtois. Lewandowski dashed to the rebound but the doors were closed on him fast, a pile of players converging. The ball ran free and so did Madrid, suddenly racing away.
Rodrygo escaped Marcos Alonso, vast space in front of him. Vinícius Júnior took it on and found Benzema, the man who makes sense of the counter like no one else. With everyone around him sprinting, he applied a pause, slowed down and laid it off for Vinícius, alone in front of goal. The shot, with the outside of the boot, hit Jules Koundé and squeezed in at the far post, helped over the line by Benzema just in case.
Madrid had the lead, the tie level on aggregate. “It was a fantastic goal and it defined the second half,” Ancelotti said. “I told the players that’s what they do: they don’t dominate but they went in 1-0 up,” Xavi said. His team had started well, Raphinha sliding in for the first chance inside two minutes and, a minute later, Gavi leading a penalty shout when his cross was blocked by David Alaba’s arm. Lewandowski was then blocked by Éder Militão and Sergi Roberto by Alaba. With Balde going at Dani Carvajal, a Raphinha header was then comfortably caught by Courtois.
But bit by bit Madrid found their way into the game, which became fractious at times, a few flash points appearing. Rodrygo almost reached Caravajal’s cross before Vinícius and Gavi – no surprises there – confronted each other. When Balde’s superb run deep into Madrid’s area was finally stopped, Madrid ran all the way to the opposite corner where Vinícius found Toni Kroos, whose speared ball to the far post was volleyed by Benzema.
If that was a warning, the next one counted. The clock showed 45.08 when Courtois stopped the ball at one end, 45.27 when it crossed the line at the other. It showed 49 when Benzema got the second, Madrid working their way off the touchline, Luka Modrić setting across the pitch, easing away from Roberto and Sergio Busquets to provide the pass from which the Frenchman swept in the finish.
Barcelona came back at them, if all too briefly: Balde’s shot was saved by Courtois, Ronald Araújo’s header faded past the far post and Raphinha struck over. Araújo then went it alone, at least in part because he had to. Bulldozing through on the right, he somehow found his way to the edge of the six-yard box, where he shot wide. The Uruguayan collapsed to the floor, the fans chanting his name, but silence followed when Franck Kessié needlessly brought down Vinicius for the penalty from which Benzema scored the third.
The fourth could have followed sooner than it did, Barcelona defeated, this game done. Rodrygo, Asensio and Benzema all could have scored before Vinícius sprinted away. A wonderful piece of footwork saw the ball flicked from one boot to the other and onto Benzema with nine minutes to go on what had become a historic night. The Frenchman guided into the net, the first Madrid player to get a hat-trick here since Ferenc Puskás, standing in the corner, arms raised to the sky.
