Barcelona began their Copa del Rey title defense with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Linares Deportivo on the road to advance to the Round of 16. Barça dominated the entire match and should have put the tie out of sight, but missed a lot of chances and had to come from behind in the second half to get the win and move on in the Cup.
FIRST HALF
Barça approached the first half as they should against a Third Division side: utterly dominant. The Blaugrana had over 80% possession and sent plenty of bodies forward and created several chances to score at least once or twice, but poor finishing and bad decision-making in the final third kept them from scoring.