Real Madrid and Barcelona have booked their places in this year’s Copa del Rey final – the first time the two rivals will face off in the final since 2014.
It will be the eighth time in the long and storied history of the Spanish cup that the country’s two biggest and most successful clubs will contest the final, after Real Madrid beat Real Sociedad 5-4 on aggregate in the semi-finals and Barcelona won out via the same scoreline against Atletico Madrid.
But which club have had the better of it over the years? We’ve broken down their seven previous meetings in Copa del Rey finals.
Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona (1936)
A month before the Spanish civil war drew a halt to Spanish football for three years, Real Madrid and Barcelona met for the first time in the final of the Copa del Presidente de la Republica, as it was known back then.
All three goals were scored in the first half hour, with Barcelona – coached by Irishman Patrick O’Connell – succumbing to a 2-1 defeat at Mestalla.
Ricardo Zomora’s “impossible save” to deny Barca an equaliser in the final minutes is one of the most famous in Spanish football history, and often still referenced to this day.
Marca’s award for the ‘keeper with the lowest goals-to-games ratio in any given season is named after the iconic Madrid No.1.
Barcelona 1-0 Real Madrid (1968)
Real Madrid won eight of 10 La Liga titles between 1961 and 1971, the other two going across the city into Atletico’s hands.
One hundred thousand spectactors watched on at the Santiago Bernabeu for the 1968 Copa del Generalisimo final as the Catalans arrived at the capital.
An early own goal from Madrid defender Fernando Zunzunegui settled it.
Real Madrid 4-0 Barcelona (1974)
Quite the scoreline and quite the shock.
Rinus Michels’ Barca claimed the La Liga title in 1973-74, having thrashed Madrid 5-0 at the Bernabeu. Their rivals succumbed to a now-unthinkable eighth-place finish that season.
An unfancied Madrid got their revenge in a thrashing in the late June final at the Vicente Calderon.
“Losing that Liga game meant we couldn’t afford to let a chance to beat Barcelona in the final slip by,” goalscorer Benito Rubinan reminisced.
“We went onto the pitch convinced we could achieve something special that day.”
Barcelona 2-1 Real Madrid (1983)
Barcelona finished a distant fourth in 1982-83, but they made it a season to remember by beating Madrid in the Copa final – and it was an extra bitter year for their rivals, who were pipped to the La Liga title by Athletic Bilbao by just a point.
Los Blancos were also beaten in the Cup Winners’ Cup final by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen and finished runners-up in the Supercopa de Espana and short-lived Copa de la Liga. Ouch.
Marcos Alonso Pena – son of Marcos Alonso Imaz, who won five European Cups with Madrid in the 1950s – scored the famous injury-time match-winner, a diving header, for Barcelona.
And yes, that is the father of current-day defender Marcos Alonso, who has represented both clubs. Quite the Clasico dynasty, that.
Diego Maradona also featured for the victors that night. But his role in the following year’s all-out bloodbath was much more memorable.
Barcelona 2-0 Real Madrid (1990)
Barcelona’s last Copa del Rey final victory over their most hated rivals was back when the Champions League was known as the European Cup and the Premier League was just called the First Division.
But it was a hugely symbolic victory for Johan Cruyff’s Barca, who would later become known as the ‘Dream Team’ off the back of triumphs like this one.
Played at Mestalla, it was the first time Cruyff’s side had managed to beat Real Madrid’s legendary Quinta del Buitre – their homegrown core of Emilio Butragueno, Manolo Sanchis, Martin Vazquez, Michel and Miguel Pardeza that dominated Spanish football in the late 80s.
That Madrid side won five successive La Liga titles and two UEFA Cups, but they were stopped in their tracks by a Barca side that featured Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup and a young Txiki Begiristain. La Masia graduate Guillermo Amor and Spain stalwart Julio Salinas scored the goals
While John Toshack’s Blancos went on to win the league that year, this result could be read as a changing of the guards – Cruyff’s Barca went on to win four straight league titles, as well as the club’s first-ever European Cup in 1992.
This cup final signalled their arrival as a serious force, and the beginning of the end of one of Madrid’s most memorable eras.
Real Madrid 1-0 Barcelona (2011)
The first Clasico Copa final in over two decades – and of course it arrived when the Guardiola-Mourinho, Messi-Ronaldo rivalry years were at their white-hot apex.
A towering Ronaldo header settled the Mestalla final in extra-time after a fairly cagey, terse 90 minutes.
It was the second of four meetings between the two clubs in 18 days and ultimately denied Guardiola’s Barca another treble – on the other fronts, they’d got the point they needed to seal the La Liga title and triumphed over two legs in the Champions League semis.
Halcyon days.
READ: ‘We’re the best, f*ck you’: The story of Barca & Real’s four Clasicos in 18 days
Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona (2014)
It’s somehow been over a decade since the last Barca vs Madrid Copa final. How time flies, eh?
The 2014 final will always be remembered for one thing and one thing only – Gareth Bale absolutely burning poor Marc Bartra for pace and scoring one of the iconic cup final goals to win it late on.
Barcelona responded by winning the next four Copa finals in a row, while Madrid have only won one of the last 10.
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