Barcelona travelled to nearby UD Cornella this evening on red alert. Fresh from their Supercopa de Espana defeat at the hands of Athletic Bilbao, they were intent on not allowing another upset.
Their caution was, of course, heightened by the fact that Real Madrid were dumped out of the Copa del Rey last night by third-tier and ten-man Alcoyano, and that their hosts for the evening, Cornella, had themselves knocked La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid out in the previous round.
Barcelona were missing Lionel Messi through suspension and Sergino Dest through injury, but started with several key figures including Antoine Griezmann. They dominated the early exchanges, unsurprisingly, but failed to find a way of breaking down their third-tier opposition.
A chance arose when Ronald Araujo was fouled in the box and a penalty awarded in the 39th minute, only for Miralem Pjanic to see his effort, low and to the left, saved by the goalkeeper.
Ousmane Dembele repeated the trick in the 80th minute, stepping up after Clement Lenglet was fouled. His effort was even worse than Pjanic’s weak and straight down the middle. Barcelona would head to extra-time for the third time in just over a week.
Dembele made up for his error, however, just two minutes into extra-time. The French winger received the ball, opened himself up and unleashed a vicious effort past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net, too hot to handle.
Cornella 0-1 Barcelona – Ousmane Dembele great goalpic.twitter.com/t0OCCwJNYz
— noobfcb (@noob_fcb) January 21, 2021
