Barcelona vs. Real Madrid live score: Copa del Rey final result, updates, stats as Mbappe inspires turnaround

By | April 26, 2025
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Barcelona and Real Madrid meet in a mouthwatering Copa del Rey final. with silverware and Clasico bragging rights all on the line in Seville.

Hansi Flick’s Barca head into the game as slight favourites, having pulled four points clear of their bitter rivals at the top of La Liga.

This could yet be the first part of a treble for the Blaugrana, who face Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League semifinals next week.

Madrid are out of their favourite tournament having gone down in the quarterfinals to Arsenal. Putting the breaks on a season of potential Barcelona domination should be all the motivation Carlo Ancelotti’s players need. 

The Sporting News is following the Copa del Rey final live, providing score updates and commentary

Latest live updates | Team news and lineups | Where to watch where you are

Barcelona vs. Real Madrid score

  1st Half Goalscorers
Barcelona 2 Pedri 28′, Ferran 84′
Real Madrid 2 Mbappe 70′, Tchouameni 77′

Venue: Estadio La Cartuja, Seville
Referee: Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea

Confirmed Lineups:

Barcelona (4-2-3-1, right to left): 25. Wojciech Szczesny (GK) — 23. Jules Kounde, 2. Pau Cubarsi, 5. Inigo Martinez, 35. Gerard Martin (4. Ronald Araujo) — 21. Frenkie de Jong (6. Gavi), 8. Pedri — 19. Lamine Yamal, 20. Dani Olmo (16. Fermin Lopez), 11. Raphinha — 7. Ferran Torres.

Real Madrid (4-3-1-2, right to left): 1. Thibaut Courtois (GK) — 17. Lucas Vazquez (10. Luka Modric), 35. Raul Asensio, 22. Antonio Rudiger, 23. Ferland Mendy (20. Fran Garcia) — 8. Federico Valverde, 14. Aurelien Tchouameni, 19. Dani Ceballos (15. Arda Guler) — 5. Jude Bellingham — 11. Rodrygo (9. Kylian Mbappe), 7. Vinicius Jr.

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Barcelona vs. Real Madrid live updates, highlights, and commentary

Fulltime

We’ll need another half hour. As you can imagine, after that penalty snafu everyone is in a fantastic mood.

90+10 mins: PENALTY OVERTURNED! Bengoetxea goes back on his call and books Raphinha for diving. I’m really not sure the replays gave compelling enough evidence for that. But once officials go to the monitor, things tend to go one way.

90+8 mins: VAR REVIEW! Bengoetxea is going to the monitor. Ooofff, this feels unbearable for him given the pre-match pressure.

90+6 mins: PENALTY TO BARCELONA!!!! The referee has been in the midst of plenty of pre-match talk but that looks like a fairly stone-wall penalty. Asensio hurls himself in on Raphinha. Sure, the winger is looking for it but the Madrid centre-back obliged.

90+4 mins: Ferran looks to get past Rudiger but his feet betray him. There are some tired players out there now.

90 mins: There will be six additional minutes to find a winner or we’re going to extra time.

84 mins: GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!! Ferran Torres!!!!!

What a cup final this is. Again Lamine Yamal picks out a nonsensically good pass. It tempts Courtois out of his ground and Ferran is quick. He gets there first, touches the ball around the Madrid goalkeeper and slots home a cool finish.

78 mins: Rudiger is struggling and the Madrid medical staff seem to be mummifying his leg. I guess he’ll try to carry on.

77 mins: GOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! Aurelien Tchouameni!!!!!!

This set piece works and Madrid have turned it around as Tchouameni powers home! Koude is ball-watchin g and no one has his hulking compatriot.

75 mins: Modric’s corner is cleared back to him. The second cross goes out for a throw.

74 mins: Madrid scythe down the left flank with Mbappe and Vinicius after Bellingham picks Lamine’s pocket. Vini Jr. looks for Mbappe but Cubarsi is astutely on the spot to clear behind.

70 mins: GOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! Kylian Mbappe!!!!!

Free-kick sumptuously crashed beyond Szszesny by Mbappe, who has 34 goals this season. That’s one more than Ronaldo in his debut Madrid campaign. The wall looked a bit of a shambles.

68 mins: Oh my, this could be about to get silly. Mbappe haring through the Barcelona defence after another Pedri giveaway. He scuffs his shot under pressure and it’s a foul from De Jong. The Madrid players want him sent off but there were enough covering defenders around. Free-kick in a very dangerous spot.

65 mins: First Barca change is a straight swap, with Fermin on for Olmo.

63 mins: Corner to Madrid. Modric over it. Szczesny gets a good punch to it. Guler sends one back in to the far post for Vinicius but the flag goes up against the Turkey youngster.

62 mins: De Jong floats one over the top for Olmo but he can’t bring it under his spell and Asensio shuts the door.

61 mins: End-to-end stuff now as Madrid leave themselves exposed at the back, only for Raphinha to drag wastefully wide once more.

59 mins: Vinicius flashes one just wide from the edge of the area after Pedri uncharacteristically coughs up possession. The feel of the game has definitely changed here. The next goal feels huge,

57 mins: This is a much more even half as Vinicius and Mbappe have Barcelona scrambling again but enough Blaugrana shirts get back to avert the danger.

56 mins: That means Valverde back to right-back and Barca try to take advantage of the reshuffle, with Raphinha down into that zone and driving wide.

55 mins: More changes for Madrid, with Modric and Guler coming on for Vazquez and Ceballos.

54 mins; Ball in behind for Mbappe, who gets a first chance to stretch his legs. He twists one way and the other, Cubarsi staying with him before Szczesny smothers the shot. 

50 mins: Rudiger rises to meet the corner but mis-times his jump and can’t make the most of the chance.

49 mins: Bellingham slides a pass through to Vinicius and that’s a fine save from Szczesny, who also deals with the follow-up.

48 mins: Pedri takes aim form outside the box again. This one isn’t so good. High and wide.

2nd Half: Kickoff

The teams are back with us, and so is Kylian Mbappe, who’s on in place of Rodrygo. No matter, Barca are straight back at their rivals and that man Lamine Yamal gives Courtois some early second-half work.

Halftime

Barcelona good value for their lead. They haven’t created heaps of chances but they’ve played with authority and Pedri’s opener was a pearler. Plenty to ponder for Ancelotti. How much can Mbappe’s ankle stand? See you back here shortly.

45 mins+2: Drama here as Vinicius surges through from the left. Surely he’s offside? Now a heavy touch and out comes Szczesny to challenge. The referee points to the spot, but then the flag goes up and VAR confirms Vini Jr. was beyond the last man.

45 mins: Five minutes to be added before the break.

43 mins: Raphinha’s free-kick takes a wicked deflection off the wall. Courtois momentarily looks worried but it spins wide. Ohhhh, the corner spins all the way through from Olmo and hits the far post! Let off for Madrid.

41 mins: Olmo scampering into the Madrid box, Rudgier hurls himself to the ground to block.

37 mins: That’s not so astute from Gerard Martin, who dives in on Tchouameni and is booked. That challenge came just after a fairly dicey Bellingham challenge on Olmo inside the Madrid box.

35 mins: Bellingham has the ball in the Barcelona net but knows he’s offside. Gerard Martin stepped out crucially before the Englishman finished tidily. A rueful grimace follows.

28 mins: GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!! Pedri!!!!!!

Oh my word, what a way to open the scoring in the Copa del Rey final! Pedri starts the move with a raking pass to Lamine Yamal. It ends up being a long one-two as he arrives to meet the return pass first-time outside the D, sweeping a majestic strike into the top corner.

23 mins: Vinicius gets his first proper look at the Barcelona back four but the move breaks down. Ceballos fouls Lamine Yamal to hault the counter and the Barca players ask for a booking that isn’t forthcoming.

21 mins: Kounde the target again for a Barca set piece and this is a better attempt that Courtois pushes over at full stretch.

19 mins: Ohhhh, close! Lamine Yamal lets fly from outside the box. He scuffs his effort but Courtois appears to be unsighted and doesn’t move as the ball skids just beyond his far post.

16 mins: Barca got flying down the left and Madrid are turned around and in trouble. Valverde comes tearing back to make an excellent challenge on Ferran. He also does pretty well to avoid handling the ball as he falls to the turf.

11 mins: Garcia gets scant help as Lamine Yamal goes right for him. Welcome to the cup final! Corner to Barca, which is dealt with.

9 mins: Madrid have barely been out of their half and Ancelotti’s gamble to start Mendy appeared to have backfired. He’s down with a thigh injury after a good challenge on Jules Kounde. Fran Garcia is ready to join us.

3 mins: Kounde gets up to meet the corner and heads well over. In truth, he should have done better with that.

2 mins: Ferran skips past Asensio into the box and a combination of Rudiger and Tchouameni are forced to scramble behind.

1st Half: Kickoff

Barcelona get us underway.

5 mins before kickoff: Senor Burgos Bengoetxea leads the teams out. A peseta for his thoughts. The players looking all business. Flick and Ancelotti embrace before the national anthem, which is predictably given a solid booing by the Catalan contingent. Barca have won this season’s Clasicos 4-0 and 5-2. Can Madrid avert another humiliation?

30 mins before kickoff: It wouldn’t be El Clasico without absurd referee-based build-up. Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea is the man in the middle tonight and gave an emotional news conference when he addressed being singled out by a piece on Real Madrid TV that inferred he favoured Barcelona with his decisions. Madrid responded by boycotting some of their pre-match obligations and issued a clubs statement to deny rumours the would pull out of the game altogether. Nice, normal stuff…

1 hour before kickoff: Here’s the Barca lineup, with nothing as dramatic as Mbappe being on the bench, Okay, it’d be very dramatic if Mbappe was on the Barcelona bench, You know what I mean.

Anyway, we already knew Robert Lewandowski was out and Ferran Torres leads the line as expected for the Blaugrana. There’s a show of faith in youngster Gerard Martin, who gets the nod at left-back with Alejandro Balde still out.

1 hr 30 mins before kickoff: The Real Madrid team is in and Kylian Mbappe is only fit enough for a place on the bench! It means Madrid will probably revert to the system that served them so well last season, with Jude Bellingham roving as a box-crashing No.10, in between split strikers Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr.

2 hours before kickoff. Hello and welcome to The Sporting News’ live coverage of Barcelona against Real Madrid in the final of the Copa del Rey. European football’s biggest rivalry played out with silverware in the line. It doesn’t get much better than this, you lucky devils.

Barcelona vs. Real Madrid kick off time

The Copa del Rey final kicks off in Seville at 10 p.m. local time.

Here’s how that time translates across some of the major territories:

  Date Kickoff time
USA Sat, Apr 26 4:00 p.m. ET
Canada Sat, Apr 26 4:00 p.m. ET
UK Sat, Apr 26 9:00 p.m. BST
Australia Sun, Apr 27 7:00 a.m. AEDT
India Sun, Apr 27 2:30 a.m. IST

Barcelona vs. Real Madrid lineups, team news

Robert Lewandowski is out for some time with a hamstring injury, leaving Ferran Torres to occupy the central striker position. Hansi Flick had decisions to make in the No. 10 slot behind Torres, with Dani Olmo getting the nod ahead of Gavi and Fermin Lopez.

Alejandro Balde has been unable to recover from his hamstring injury in time for this match, with Gerard Martin remaining at left-back. Balde is expected to return in time for the upcoming Champions League games in the near future.

Wojciech Szczesny will remain in goal the rest of the season, as Hansi Flick has decided not to turn back to Marc-Andre ter Stegen out of loyalty to the Poland international who came out of retirement for this role.

Barcelona (4-2-3-1, right to left): Szczesny (GK) — Kounde, Cubarsi, I. Martinez, Martin — de Jong, Pedri — Lamine Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha — F. Torres.

Injured: Balde (hamstring, doubt), Lewandowski (hamstring), Casado (knee), Bernal (ACL).
Suspended: None.

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Real Madrid have Kylian Mbappe back for the Copa del Rey final, but the superstar forward is only fit enough for a place on the bench following his recent ankle injury.

In Mbappe’s absence, it looks like Madrid will revert to their attacking shape from last season, with Jude Bellingham playing as an attacking No. 10 behind Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr.

Midfielder Eduardo Camavinga, who suffered a “complete tear” of his adductor against Getafe last time out and is done for the season. Ferland Mendy returns from his own lay-off and is preferred to Fran Garcia at left-back.

Real Madrid (4-3-1-2, right to left): Courtois (GK) — Valverde, Asensio, Rudiger, Mendy — Valverde, Tchouameni, Ceballos — Bellingham — Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr.

Injured: Camavinga (groin), Carvajal (ACL), Militao (ACL).
Suspended: None.

Barcelona vs. Real Madrid live stream, TV channel

Here’s how to watch the 2025 Copa del Rey final across selected areas of the world’s major regions:

  TV channel Streaming
USA ESPN Deportes Fubo USA, ESPN+
Canada  —  —
UK Premier Sports 1 Premier Player
Australia  —  —
India  — FanCode

Source