2021 Copa del Rey final

The tournament was played amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain which resulted in no crowds being allowed to be present in the stadiums. Barcelona's progress was characterised by narrow victories and dramatic comebacks, including being taken to extra time by part-time neighbours Cornellà after failing to score from two penalties,[7] finding the net twice in the last 20 minutes to overcome second-tier Rayo Vallecano,[8] and recovering from a 2–0 deficit with just three minutes remaining against Granada, taking the tie to extra time which ended in a 5–3 victory.[9] They gave themselves a mountain to climb once again in the semi-final against Sevilla (a repeat of a recent final in 2018 and the only round of the competition with two legs), going down 2–0 at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. In the return at Camp Nou, Ousmane Dembélé scored early and Marc-André ter Stegen saved a penalty to keep Barça hopes alive, but they were still behind with 90 minutes played; Gerard Piqué equalised in the fourth and last minute of stoppage time to level the tie on aggregate, and in extra time Martin Braithwaite found the winner to take his side into their 42nd final.[10]

Athletic Bilbao's route to the event was comparably uncertain: they came from behind to overcome third-level Ibiza 2–1 with a last-minute goal,[11] required a late winner again against Alcoyano (who had eliminated Real Madrid from the competition),[12] and scored in the third minute of second-half stoppage time minute to take their quarter-final against Real Betis to extra time, before advancing with a perfect conversion rate in a penalty shoot-out.[13] In the semi-finals against Levante they fell behind in both legs but found an equaliser (through Iñigo Martínez in the first match and a Raúl García penalty in the return) to again force extra time; the winner came from a deflected Álex Berenguer shot with eight minutes of the extended period remaining,[14] reaching the final for the 39th time (one back in 1904 was never played and the cup awarded to the Bilbao side in a walkover).[15]

At the time of the clubs qualifying for the 2021 event, the 2020 Copa del Rey final between Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad was still to be played, with its rescheduled date of 3 April 2021 giving the Biscay club a unique opportunity to win the competition twice inside a fortnight[16] The delay also meant their current head coach Marcelino was the most recent manager to win the competition, having defeated Barcelona in the 2019 final while in charge of Valencia. That was the sixth consecutive final for the Blaugrana, and the first defeat for the Catalans since 2014; the sequence of finals is an outright record and the run of wins is a shared record along with Real Madrid in the 1900s and Athletic in the 1930s.[15] When the 2020 final was eventually played, Athletic fell to a 1–0 defeat.[17]

Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao had played each other in eight previous finals of the tournament; Barcelona won in 1920, 1942, 1953, 2009, 2012 and the most recent in 2015, and Athletic in 1932 and 1984.[15][18] Their 2021 meeting made the fixture the most played in the history of Copa Del Rey finals, breaking a tied record with Athletic v Real Madrid[note 2] (the third pairing of the trio, El Clásico between Madrid and Barcelona, has been played seven times).[15]

The sided had also met frequently in Supercopa de España finals; indeed all of Athletic's four appearances (1983, 2009, 2015 and 2021) in that competition were against Barcelona. The most recent of these was exactly three months prior to the Copa del Rey Final and played at the same venue (behind closed doors due to the pandemic), with Athletic winning 3–2 after extra time to claim the trophy with a winning goal from Iñaki Williams.[20] By reaching the Copa del Rey final, both teams were assured qualification for the four-team 2021–22 Supercopa de España, giving Athletic the chance to defend their title.

In the 2020–21 La Liga meetings between the clubs (both played in January 2021 due to scheduling issues, two weeks either side of their Supercopa match), Barça had the edge with two wins (3–2 at San Mamés, 2–1 at Camp Nou, Lionel Messi scoring three of the goals) though the close scorelines in all three matches demonstrated the narrow margins between the sides overall.

Key: (H) = Home; (A) = Away

• Athletic–Barcelona clásico