Barça put their place on track to the final with a double from Aitana in just three minutes. Salma Paralluelo, in the second half, completed the victory in the first leg of the Copa de la Reina semi-finals. A tie that Barça and Athletic will close within a week at the Johan Cruyff.

In a San Mamés that had a great entrance with 23,590 spectators in its stands, the Blaugrana displayed all their potential and subdued an Athletic that could do little against the nine-time Cup champion.

The match started with Athletic very closed, allowing Barça to play in their own field with total comfort and waiting for them in the back with two lines of four very close together. The Blaugrana were forced to patiently circulate the ball looking for a space to enter, but they did so slowly and feeling comfortable.

The lionesses, for their part, resisted the Blaugrana dominance with solvency and even dared to look for some counterattack through deep passes for the two offensive references, Ane Azkona and Nahikari.

But before the quarter-hour mark, the best soccer player in the world, FC Barcelona’s ’14’, appeared to decide the match. First, sending a cannon shot from the edge of the area that was impossible for Nanclares, and three minutes later, Aitana Bonmatí combined with Graham Hansen in a brilliant attack that the Sant Pere de Ribes player defined with great quality to make it 0-2.

With the Catalan midfielder’s double, Barça put victory on track and frustrated the plans of an Athletic team that wanted to resist as long as possible with the score at zero against the Blaugrana giant.

After half an hour of play, Nanclares saved Barça’s third with a great intervention in which she managed to block Claudia Pina’s shot and just before the break Ingrid Engen tried to surprise with a shot from outside that narrowly missed.

The second half continued with the same script. With a dominating Barça in possession, although without many chances, and a powerless Athletic that was losing strength as the minutes passed. The two coaches moved the bench, in the case of Barça, thinking about an intense month of March with Cup, Champions and League qualifiers, two games a week.

One of the freshmen players, Salma Paralluelo, almost scored the third in a shot that Nanclares deflected into a corner to save her team again. But he did not forgive the second he had and, 12 minutes after coming on, he scored 0-3 with a great finish.

Alexia Putellas did not play any minutes, in her first call-up for Barça since November, but Fridolina Rolfö did. The Swedish footballer, who underwent meniscus surgery in September, came on in the 78th minute with the aim of gaining minutes to reach 100% for the decisive stretch of the season.

In the other semifinal, played on Wednesday, Atlético de Madrid rescued a tie in added time thanks to a header from Gaby that equaled Amaiur Sarriegi’s initial goal for Real Sociedad. The finalist will be decided in the second leg in a week in San Sebastián.