Thousands of delighted Basque fans flooded onto the pitch to celebrate Athletic Club Bilbao's first cup final in 24 years. The 'Lions' of Bilbao went into the game 2-1 down on aggregate but roared out of the blocks at home last night, instantly asserting their authority on this second leg, and soon finding reward with young Javi Martinez arriving into the box from midfield, as he so often does to effect, and slotting past Palop in the 3rd minute.
Half an hour later Spain international striker and spearhead of this up and coming Atheltic side, Llorente, made it 2-0, rising highest to head in Yeste's pin-point cross from the left. Almost immediately after, he turned provider putting Toquero through on goal for Bilbao's third to secure a long awaited place in the Copa del Rey final.
With theirs being the first to be played of the night's two semi-final ties, they would have to wait just a little longer before finding out whether Barcelona or Mallorca would await them there.
Mallorca's chances of overturning the 2-0 aggregate lead Barca had gained in the first leg looked very slim indeed just a few weeks ago. After all, at the time Barça were 12 points clear at the top of the table, averaging 3 goals a game at a canter and had not lost since the first game of the season.
Since then, however, Barcelona have hit a miserable run of form - 2 losses and 2 draws from 4 games - for which keeper Valdes, having made a series of errors of late, seems to have been made the scapegoat, with Pinto taking his place between the sticks.
Mallorca would have been harbouring at least a glimmer of hope that they could get back into the tie, especially with Messi sat amongst the substitutes. So by the time Castro thundered Webo's pass past Pinto from 30 yards in the closing seconds of the first-half, the Mallorca fans were really starting to believe they could pull this off.
The second-half began and a nervous Barcelona were teetering on the brink of disaster. Webo had bundled the ball into the net within minutes of the re-start, only for it to be ruled out for offside by a very sheepish looking linesman. And it got worse just moments later.
With Mallorca continuing to surge forward looking for that vital 2nd goal that would restore parity, suddenly Castro found himself through on goal again. This time, however, Cáceres brought him tumbling down with a tackle from behind for which he left the referee no choice. A red card was given to Cáceres - a penalty to Mallorca.
Martí stepped up to take, saw Pinto go to his left and so struck the ball to the center, but somehow Pinto managed to volley the ball away with his outstetched right leg and Barcelona were off the hook.
Thanks to Pinto's stop Guardiola could now reinforce his defence by bringing on Marquez and then adding to his attack by throwing on Messi for Bojan Krkic.The game continued to swing two and fro until a red card for Mallorca's Josemi (issued to him whilst still feigning injury on the team stretcher) put Barça back in the driving seat. Eventually a mistake from Navarro 10 minutes from time sent Messi through on goal to dink a lofted chip over the sprawling goalkeeper and into the net.
Barceloña were through at last but Lyon for one will be licking their lips at the fragility of their upcoming opponents.
The Copa del Rey final will take place on the 13th of May in Valencia