Torres nets treble in their 5-0 win en route to Copa semis; Real Sociedad also in last 4
Madrid: Ferran Torres scored a 30-minute hat-trick as FC Barcelona cruised into the semifinals of the Copa del Rey with a 5-0 win away to Valencia on Friday.
The game took place less than a fortnight after Barca had beaten Valencia 7-1 in La Liga. Torres opened the scoring in the third minute as he ran onto a fantastic pass from Alejandro Balde to stab the ball past goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.
Torres quickly doubled the lead, hooking home from 10 yards after Dimitrievski had done well to tip Lamine Yamal’s shot onto the post.
Fermin Lopez then got into the act, taking the ball past Dimitrievski after beating a static Valencia offside trap in the 23rd minute.
Torres completed his hat-trick on the half hour, picking his spot from outside the area after a neat layoff from Raphinha. Barca continued their dominance in the second half, with Yamal hitting the post with a curling shot, before adding a fifth in the 59th minute with a low shot that Dimitrievski didn’t seem to get a view of.
From then on it was a Barcelona monologue until the final whistle, as Valencia ended up with just 22 percent of possession.
Meanwhile, Real Sociedad eliminated Osasuna for the second straight season, winning 2-0 to advance to the semifinals.
Ander Barrenetxea and Brais Mendez scored first-half goals to give Sociedad the home victory against an Osasuna team that played a man down from the 35th when Alejandro Catena was sent off with a straight red card after video review intervened. Sociedad were already ahead 2-0 when Catena was sent off.
Sociedad had won by the same score at Osasuna in the round of 16 last season. They hadn’t made it to the last four since they won their third Copa title in 2019-20. Osasuna were runners-up to Real Madrid in 2022-23.
