Lamine Yamal, unstoppable! Goal and assist to seal another 'manita' for Barça

FC Barcelona crushed Real Betis (5-1) to advance to the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey, in another great night for Lamine Yamal and, in general, for the entire team led by Hansi Flick. Barça dominated the Andalusians from start to finish and was ahead on the scoreboard from the 3rd minute thanks to a goal from Gavi. In the 27th minute, the score would become 2-0, courtesy of Jules Koundé, but with the '19' as the mastermind.

The winger caught the Frenchman's run, setting him up with the outside of his left boot. Jules arrived in stride, finishing with a cross shot, impossible for Freites. Barça repeated the formula just before halftime, but VAR disallowed the goal from '23' for a millimetric offside. In the 54th minute, the semi-automatic offside would again spoil things for the culés, this time after a controversial review that went back nearly 20 seconds to call an offside on Lamine, the scorer of the disallowed goal.

Fortunately for Yamal, there was redemption before Hansi Flick replaced him in the 77th minute. The winger broke down the left and, taking advantage of a through ball from Fermín López, finished low past Freites to seal the 'manita'. The linesman initially raised the flag, but VAR ultimately validated the goal. In total, the '19' completed 19 of 23 passes (89%), with 5 successful dribbles out of 7 attempts and 7 balls recovered, despite being caught offside 5 times.

Lamine Yamal continues to improve his stats in the 2024-25 season

His goal against Betis was the second he scored in the Copa del Rey (the first, in the quarterfinals of last season, against Athletic) and the tenth of the season in 24 matches. Lamine had just scored a stunning goal in the Supercopa Classic and scored for the third consecutive match, an unprecedented streak so far in his budding career. The player from Mataró had also scored against Athletic in the 'semis' of the Supercopa, thus tallying his goals to the matches played in 2025.

After suffering an injury to his right ankle against Leganés, the winger has returned in his best form this January. Moreover, Yamal reached a dozen assists this season (9 in La Liga, 2 in Champions, and 1 in Copa), three more than Raphinha (9). Against Betis, the young player could have added another goal or assist. In fact, he also participated in the play that led to Rafa's goal, although there he does not get credited with the assist, as he intended to shoot on goal and the rebound fell to the Brazilian.