Lamine Yamal, Barcelona Stay Hot As Blaugrana Reach Copa Del Rey Semifinals

Barcelona secured safe passage through to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey with a 2-1 win over Segunda División outfit Albacete on Tuesday. The Catalan giants were made to wait until the 39th minute before Lamine Yamal opened the scoring, and Ronald Araujo later netted the second of the night, though Javi Moreno's strike set up a nervy ending to the encounter.

Confident from a three-game winning run, Barcelona were heavy favorites as they faced Real Madrid's conquerors from the previous round. However, they endured early frustration against Albacete as they struggled to create clear-cut opportunities, with Marcus Rashford placing wide from their best chance.

They eventually had Yamal to thank for breaking the deadlock. Barcelona won the ball high up the pitch, Frenkie de Jong passed to Yamal and the Spain international bent an effort into the far corner to make it 1-0 with his fifth goal in his last six games.

The floodgates didn't exactly open, but Araujo effectively ended Albacete's hopes of an unlikely comeback when he headed a powerful effort into the back of the net from Rashford's corner. Moreno did pull one back late on and the hosts pushed for a dramatic equalizer, but thankfully for Barça, it didn't arrive.

GOAL rates Barcelona's players from Estadio Carlos Belmonte...

Joan Garcia (5/10):

The goalkeeper went through most of the evening without having much to do, but had his clean sheet spoiled in a dramatic finale.

João Cancelo (4/10):

Produced some dangerous crosses in the attacking third but was pretty naive in defense, picking up a booking in the 15th minute and risking his side going down to 10 players with further infringements. Flick sensed the danger and substituted him at half-time.

Ronald Araujo