Barcelona booked a place in the semi-finals of the 2022\/23 Copa del Rey after securing a hard-fought 1-0 victory over a ten-man Real Sociedad outfit on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Catalans were the better team in the first half but could not break open the deadlock against Imanol Alguacil\u2019s side, who saw Brais Mendez get sent off for a dangerous tackle.<\/p>\n
But early in the second period, Ousmane Dembele opened the scoring for the Blaugrana and they held on to their lead, even though Real Sociedad turned up the heat in the latter stages. Marc-Andre ter Stegen came up clutch again with two fine stops late on to ensure Barcelona won.<\/p>\n
Having already won the Spanish Super Cup this season, Bar\u00e7a now took a step closer towards winning another trophy, having qualified for the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.<\/p>\n
Manager Xavi Hernandez, who celebrated his 43rd birthday on Wednesday, spoke to the media after the match.<\/p>\n
On Ousmane Dembele\u2019s improvement: \u201cSince we\u2019ve been here, Dembele has improved a lot. I see the full-backs who play against him and they suffer. I believe in him a lot. I always think he can generate a lot for us. Today he played an extraordinary game.<\/p>\n
\u201cDembele has been criticised and booed. We have changed him and he receives a standing ovation. I\u2019m very happy for him!\u201d<\/p>\n
On failing to kill the game: \u201cWe lack aggression in front of goal. In the end, you win 1-0 and at the end, the opponents have that chance. We can\u2019t give away these advantages.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good game from us, but it looks like we score the first goal and that\u2019s it. We have to go for the 2-0\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
On Dembele: \u201cDembele, in his position, is one of the best players in the world. I think what has changed in Dembele is that he now believes he is one of the best wingers in the world, something I already knew, now he is starting to believe it. He feels our confidence. I talk to him quite a lot. I\u2019m glad because he\u2019s a great guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the match: \u201cWe played a brilliant 60 minutes. I\u2019m very satisfied with the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Pedri: \u201cPedri only has a bruise on his knee. He is fine. He\u2019ll be available for Saturday\u2019s match.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the season so far: \u201cWe are where we wanted to be at this time in January. Leaders in La Liga, we\u2019re in the Copa del Rey semi-finals, we have won the Spanish Super Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sergio Busquets: \u201cHe\u2019s at a great level\u2026 Very high level. He\u2019s an extraordinary player. Having said that, we lose balls in transitions, which must be improved on.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the decision to bench Inaki Pena: \u201cI thought that Ter Stegen had to play today, just as I thought I\u00f1aki Pe\u00f1a had to play against Ceuta and Intercity. They know how it goes, they\u2019re all in the team and I haven\u2019t given them any further explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n
On what needs to improve: \u201cToday it was difficult for us when they got into the low block, it\u2019s hard for us to find those deep passes\u2026 We\u2019re missing the last pass. I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re missing the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Robert Lewandowski: \u201cLewandowski works for the team and creates chances. I\u2019m very happy with his work on the attack. Even if he didn\u2019t score, he played a very complete game and we must also highlight him.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his tactical decision: \u201cI thought that the best thing was to play with four midfielders again.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his staff: \u201cI have the best staff in the world. Both the coaches, \u00d3scar and Sergio, the analysts, the physical trainers, the nutritionists\u2026 The work that the staff does is sensational. The best thing that I have as a coach is my staff. I appreciate them very much.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Raphinha: \u201cHe\u2019ll be very important for us. I have a lot of confidence in him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barcelona booked a place in the semi-finals of the 2022\/23 Copa del Rey after securing a hard-fought 1-0 victory over a ten-man Real Sociedad outfit on Wednesday. The Catalans were the better team in the first half but could not break open the deadlock against Imanol Alguacil\u2019s side, who saw Brais Mendez get sent off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":928,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}