Benzema sinks Barca in Copa del Rey

Karim Benzema scored a second consecutive hat-trick as Real Madrid hammered Barcelona 4-0 at Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday to set up a Copa del Rey final against Osasuna in May.
Benzema, who also netted a treble against Real Valladolid at the weekend, scored three times in the second half to silence the home crowd of over 94,000 and book Madrid’s place in their first domestic cup final since 2014.
Vinicius Jr had earlier opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time to level the tie on aggregate after Barcelona’s narrow 1-0 win in the first leg of the Copa semifinal last month.
Barcelona had won the last three meetings between the two sides and started the game well despite missing four of their key players in Andreas Christensen, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Ousmane Dembele through injury.
Despite zipping the ball around nicely, though, they lacked a punch in the final third in a match, which threatened to spill over at times, with Gavi and Vinicius nearly coming to blows in a fiery first half.
Alejandro Balde was a threat at left-back and it was his cross which almost led to an opening goal. Robert Lewandowski’s crisp shot was saved by Thibaut Courtois, though, and 30 seconds later Madrid led. Vinicius broke and his shot, after collecting the ball from Benzema, squeezed over the line despite the best efforts of Jules Kounde to keep it out.
Madrid led on the night, but the tie was level on aggregate. A raucous home crowd, who had earlier chanted Lionel Messi’s name amid rumours of a possible return, tried to rally their team after the break. It had little effect, though, as Barca fell apart. Luka Modric set up Benzema for the second and a Franck Kessie foul on Vinicius gave the Frenchman the chance to score his second from the penalty spot and sentence the tie.
Benzema’s third goal came late on with space increasingly opening up as Barca desperately chased something. It is Madrid, therefore, who advance to the final against Osasuna in Seville in May. They will go into that game as massive favourites, nine years since they last won this competition.
(ESPN)