Sports

Barcelona Avoids Copa Del Rey Upset, Defeats Linares

Barcelona came from a goal down to beat Linares 2-1 at Estadio Municipal de Linarejos on Wednesday night in the Copa del Rey.

Hugo Diaz fired the hosts into a 19th minute lead only for Ousmane Dembele – a second-half substitute – to equalise three minutes after the hour mark. Ferran Jutgla won it six minutes later.

The result means that Barcelona progress into the next round of the Copa, a competition they of course won last season after beating Athletic Club 4-0 in the final at La Cartuja.

Linares have proven themselves a difficult side to play during their Copa campaign. They beat Gimnastic on penalties in the first round before knocking Alaves out in the second.

Barcelona, due to their Supercopa de Espana commitments, have only just entered the Copa, and they’ll view it as one of the only competitions they can win this season.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.