One of the oldest rivalries in Spanish football will be reignited in an unprecedented second Copa del Rey final in two weeks as FC Barcelona take on Athletic Bilbao at Seville’s Estadio La Cartuja on Saturday. The most successful sides in the competition’s history, having won 30 and 23 titles respectively, Barca and Bilbao have served up some of the most iconic moments in Copa del Rey history down the years. 

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From the infamous brawl involving Diego Maradona at the Santiago Bernabeu in the 1984 final – which Athletic won 1-0 – to Barca’s 3-1 comeback win to clinch the first trophy in Pep Guardiola’s sextuple winning side in 2009, this fixture has a knack of producing extraordinary moments.  

And one of the greatest of those came in the 2015 final between these two sides, when a piece of magic from Lionel Messi opened the floodgates to an eventual Barca victory. 

The game was well-balanced until then, with the Catalans failing to break down a stubborn Bilbao defence. At the 20th-minute mark, Messi received the ball from Dani Alves near the half-way mark on the right wing and embarked on a dazzling solo run to beat three markers. 

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He then beat a fourth on the turn inside the box, simultaneously opening up the angle for a shot and squeezed his effort past Iago Herrin’s near-post with dead-eye precision. 

Watch the goal here: 

Barca eventually romped to a 3-1 victory to clinch their 27th title and the first of their ‘treble’ that year, going on to lift the La Liga and Champions League trophies as well.  

Both sides will look to get their hands on the first peice of silverware on offer this season.

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Bilbao will look to avoid becoming the first-ever side to lost the same final twice in two weeks, after Basque rivals Real Sociedad edged to a 1-0 win last week.

Meanwhile, Barca will seek to consolidate on the progress made under manager Ronald Koemand and spur on their title challenge in La Liga.