An own goal by Girona’s Migue, a penalty from Santi Ezquerro and a splendid goal from Sylvinho turned around a 0-2 deficit to put Barça into next Tuesday’s final of the Copa Catalunya against Gimnástic of Tarragona.

The first half had very few incidents, the best being when Jeffren almost scored for Barça in the 11th minute, but his shot came out off the crossbar. After an hour, however, the game exploded into life. Rafa Marquez was robbed by Uri and he set up Chechu to make it 0-1 to Girona. Five minutes later another Marquez mistake led to a Girona attack which ended with Uri scoring Girona’s second.

Within a minute Barça got a goal back. A long hopeful ball from the left was headed back towards his own goal by Migue, unfortunately for him the goalkeeper had run way out and the ball went past him for 1-2. 

If the first Barça goal had some luck so did their equalizer on 69 minutes. Sylvinho broke into the Girona penalty area and went down as the first tackle came in. The replay showed that there was no contact but the referee gave a penalty. Ezquerro converted the kick very coolly, chipping his shot into the centre of the goal while the goalkeeper dived away to his right. 

In the 74th minute came the fifth goal in 14 minutes. Barça combined nicely down the left and Sylvinho let fly with a beautiful left footed shot from the edge of the area and the ball crashed into the roof of the net.

In the last minute Girona had a penalty appeal turned down when Larios shot against Botía’s hand, but the ref waved play on. There were many youngsters on display for Barça tonight: the ones who impressed me most are Dimas, Marc Crosas, Victor Vazquez, and the young Israeli, Gai Assulin. 

Barça’s team: Jorquera, Córcoles (Botía, 45), Márquez, Oleguer, Sylvinho, Marc Crosas, Dimas (Gai Assulin 45), Xavi Torres (Tiago Alcántara, 36), Jeffren (Toribio,  72), Ezquerro, Guerra (Víctor Vázquez, m. 36).