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Barcelona Routs Valencia Again to Reach Copa del Rey Semifinals

Soccer Football - Copa del Rey - Quarter Final - Valencia v FC Barcelona - Estadio de Mestalla, Valencia, Spain - February 6, 2025 FC Barcelona's Ferran Torres celebrates scoring their second goal with Lamine Yamal REUTERS/Pablo Morano
Soccer Football - Copa del Rey - Quarter Final - Valencia v FC Barcelona - Estadio de Mestalla, Valencia, Spain - February 6, 2025 FC Barcelona's Ferran Torres celebrates scoring their second goal with Lamine Yamal REUTERS/Pablo Morano
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Barcelona Routs Valencia Again to Reach Copa del Rey Semifinals

Soccer Football - Copa del Rey - Quarter Final - Valencia v FC Barcelona - Estadio de Mestalla, Valencia, Spain - February 6, 2025 FC Barcelona's Ferran Torres celebrates scoring their second goal with Lamine Yamal REUTERS/Pablo Morano
Soccer Football - Copa del Rey - Quarter Final - Valencia v FC Barcelona - Estadio de Mestalla, Valencia, Spain - February 6, 2025 FC Barcelona's Ferran Torres celebrates scoring their second goal with Lamine Yamal REUTERS/Pablo Morano

Ferran Torres scored a hat trick in the first half hour to lead Barcelona to another rout of Valencia and a spot in the semifinals of the Copa del Rey on Thursday, The Associated Press reported.
Torres scored in the third, 17th and 30th minutes in Barcelona's 5-0 win at Valencia. Fermin López scored in the 23rd and Lamine Yamal in the 59th for the Catalan club, which less than two weeks ago had handed Valencia a 7-1 rout at home in the Spanish league.
Barcelona hadn't made it to the Copa semifinals since being eliminated by Real Madrid in 2022-23. It last won the competition in 2020-21.
Valencia, sitting second-to-last in the Spanish league, was runner-up to Real Betis in 2021-22.
Real Sociedad eliminated Osasuna for the second straight season with a 2-0 victory.
Ander Barrenetxea and Brais Méndez scored first-half goals to give Sociedad the home victory against an Osasuna team that played a man down from the 35th when Alejandro Catena was sent off with a straight red card after video review intervened.
Sociedad was already ahead 2-0 when Catena was sent off.
Sociedad had won by the same score at Osasuna in the round of 16 last season. It hadn't made it to the last four since it won its third Copa title in 2019-20. Osasuna was runner-up to Real Madrid in 2022-23.
On Wednesday, Real Madrid edged Leganes 3-2 with a stoppage-time goal by 20-year-old Gonzalo García. Atletico Madrid had become the first team to reach the semifinals when it routed Getafe 5-0 at home Tuesday.
In the last quarterfinal on Thursday, Barcelona will visit Valencia.

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Argentina Hopes Messi Will Play at 2026 World Cup Even as Team Wins Without him

Fans of Argentina hold a flag with the picture of Argetina's forward Lionel Messi before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup South American qualifiers football match between Argentina and Brazil at the Mas Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires province, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Luis ROBAYO / AFP)
Fans of Argentina hold a flag with the picture of Argetina's forward Lionel Messi before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup South American qualifiers football match between Argentina and Brazil at the Mas Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires province, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Luis ROBAYO / AFP)
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Argentina Hopes Messi Will Play at 2026 World Cup Even as Team Wins Without him

Fans of Argentina hold a flag with the picture of Argetina's forward Lionel Messi before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup South American qualifiers football match between Argentina and Brazil at the Mas Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires province, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Luis ROBAYO / AFP)
Fans of Argentina hold a flag with the picture of Argetina's forward Lionel Messi before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup South American qualifiers football match between Argentina and Brazil at the Mas Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires province, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Luis ROBAYO / AFP)

Argentina is proving it can win without Lionel Messi, just in case he opts not to play in the 2026 World Cup.
After Argentina secured a spot in next year's competition, the main question now is whether the 37-year-old star will play in his sixth tournament and try to win back-to-back championships.
“We will see what happens, there’s plenty of time," Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said, according to The Associated Press. "We must go one game a time otherwise (we) will be speaking about the same thing the rest of the year and we need to leave him alone, we will see. He will decide it whenever he wants, let’s not drive him crazy with this.”
On Tuesday, hours after Argentina qualified for the next World Cup, it went out and handed Brazil its worst-ever loss World Cup qualifying — a 4-1 thrashing. That was days after Argentina's 1-0 victory at Uruguay.
Both victories came without Messi. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner had been ruled out after sustaining a low-grade adductor muscle injury.
Messi, who captained Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title in Qatar, has been sidelined several times by Inter Miami this season because of injury concerns.
His Argentina teammates left no doubt about their hopes for Messi to return.
“With Messi we might have scored two or three more goals,” said striker Julián Álvarez, who scored one goal against Brazil.
Bolivia’s failure to beat Uruguay on Tuesday assured Argentina — which leads the South American qualifiers with 31 points — of one of the continent’s six direct spots for the 48-team World Cup to be co-hosted next year by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
After Tuesday's big win at Monumental de Nunez Stadium, midfielder Rodrigo de Paul seemed to speak for the whole country.
"The best of our teams is always when the No. 10 is playing," De Paul said, “because he is the greatest of all time.”