Marcus Rashford wins Barcelona in the Copa del Rey

JAKARTA - Barcelona, which fielded a different team when defeating Osasuna, had difficulty before finally winning 2-0 over the team from the third division Guadalajara Copa del Rey, Wednesday, December 17, 2025 WIB early morning. Wing player Marcus Rashford helped Barca pass the 32-team round after winning the match at home in Guadalajara at the Pedro Escartin Stadium.

Barca, who are the defending champions after defeating Real Madrid in last season's final, face an opponent who is not easy even though Guadalajara plays in the lower division. Even Guadalajara, who play at home, try to fight and implement the bus parking strategy.

With a crazy formation of 5-4-1, Guadalajara really made it difficult for Barca who appeared with a different composition of players. Even coach Hansi Flick played Rashford as a 'false nine'. Meanwhile, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres were not played.

Rashford, a loan player from Manchester United, received support from Lamine Yamal who played as the number 10 player alias attacking midfielder along with Roony Bardghji and Fermin Lopez.

Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen finally stood under the crossbar after being absent for quite some time due to injury. Meanwhile, defender Pau Cubarsi played his 100th game with Barca at the age of 18.

Even though they came down with a different player composition because Flick did not put eight players as starters when defeating Osasuna 2-0 which confirmed Barca's position at the top of the Spanish LaLiga standings, they still dominated the game.

Even the Blaugrana's dominance reached 80 percent, but they struggled to penetrate the solid Guadalajara defense.

In the first half, Barca's best chance came from Eric Garcia. Only Garcia's hard shot from distance could still be thwarted by goalkeeper Dani Vicente. A goalless draw ended the first 45 minutes.

Barca stepped up the attack when entering the second half. They still dominated the game but no goals were created so the players were almost frustrated.

After 19 missed opportunities, Barca finally broke the deadlock when Andreas Christensen, who occupied the central defender, managed to break into the Guadalajara goal in the 76th minute.

The goal was created when midfielder Frenkie de Jong delivered a cross that passed goalkeeper Vincente. The ball was successfully controlled by Christensen who then shot it into the goal.

Ahead 1-0, the Barca players could let off the tension. They started to enjoy the game and again bombarded the home defense.

Only Barca had to wait until the last minute to consolidate the lead.

Rashford, who received a pass from Yamal, had fooled the goalkeeper before with a mid-range shot into an empty net in the 90th minute. The score became 2-0 and remained until the end of the match.