Barcelona reach the Copa del Rey semifinals for the 62nd time as Lamine Yamal shines again, extending a stunning 2026 streak with goals, assists, and decisive performances across competitions.
Barcelona are back in the Copa del Rey semifinals, reaching that stage for the 62nd time in the club’s history and keeping alive their ambition of retaining the trophy.
The quarterfinal win in Albacete on Tuesday was another small but meaningful step in a season that is starting to feel increasingly serious, not just because of results, but because the team is once again leaning on a player capable of tilting matches almost by himself. That player is Lamine Yamal. At 18, the winger has begun 2026 in a level of form that goes beyond “promising” or “exciting” and is now firmly in the category of decisive.
What stands out most is not only the numbers, but the way he is producing them. Lamine is playing with freedom, confidence and a sense of inevitability when he gets the ball in the final third. He is direct, daring and relentless, constantly seeking the one on one, constantly demanding the ball, constantly trying to create something different. It is the kind of profile Barcelona have always valued, but that only truly becomes priceless when it is combined with end product. Right now, Lamine has both.
His impact is being felt across every front Barcelona are competing in. The team have already collected silverware by winning the Supercopa, they are leading in LaLiga, they have progressed directly to the next phase of the Champions League, and now they are into the Copa del Rey semifinals. It is a campaign built on momentum, and within that momentum Lamine’s contribution has become one of the most decisive elements of all.
A key detail in this story is that this version of Lamine looks like the best version again. The piece of context everyone around the club keeps returning to is the physical discomfort he had been dealing with in the pubic area. When a player relies on explosiveness, change of direction and repeated accelerations, any issue in that zone can subtly take away the spark that makes the difference. The latest performances strongly suggest that spark has returned. In fact, he looks lighter, sharper, and more aggressive in his movements than he did during that period of discomfort. It is not just that he is playing well. It is that he is playing like a player who feels completely free again.
The run of contributions is almost absurd. Over his last six matches, he has either scored, assisted, or done both. That level of consistency is the mark of a player who has moved beyond occasional flashes and is now setting a standard game after game. It is also why, inside the dressing room and among supporters, there is a growing sense that Barcelona are not simply watching the development of a talented winger, they are watching the emergence of a true difference maker.
The streak has had a particularly symbolic detail. Lamine has now scored in four consecutive matches across three different competitions. He found the net against Albacete in the Copa del Rey, scored against Elche in LaLiga, scored in the Champions League against Copenhagen, and also scored in the domestic league match against Oviedo. This is the kind of sequence that usually belongs to established stars in their peak years, not to a teenager. And because Barcelona are a club that measure themselves through the lens of history, the comparison made in the article carries weight: the last Barcelona player to string together a similar scoring run was Leo Messi.
The Messi reference is not being used to place an impossible burden on Lamine, but it highlights how rare this pattern is at Barcelona. Plenty of talented youngsters have come through the academy, plenty of attackers have had purple patches, but very few have stacked performances in this way while also being the one everyone watches for the moment that decides a match. When Lamine is on the pitch, he is not just another attacker in the system. He becomes the focal point of unpredictability.
His influence has not been limited to goals, either. He assisted in the Champions League match against the Danes and also delivered an assist against Real Sociedad, showing that he is not locked into one way of impacting games. He can be the finisher when he arrives in the box, but he can also be the creator who opens a defence with a final pass at the right moment. In a team that has sometimes struggled in recent seasons to consistently generate clear chances, a player who can deliver both goals and assists at this rhythm becomes a tactical luxury.
There is also the broader statistical picture. Across the season so far, Lamine has already accumulated 14 goals and 13 assists. Those totals are the sort you would usually associate with a team’s leading attacker, and they explain why his rise has been met with unanimous praise inside the club. He is Barcelona’s second top scorer, only behind Ferran Torres, and he is also the player providing the most final passes. In other words, he is simultaneously one of the main finishers and the main facilitators, a combination that underlines how central he has become to Barcelona’s attacking output.
The reaction from the club’s leadership and staff has been just as telling. After the match in Albacete, president Joan Laporta described him in the simplest and most emphatic terms: Lamine is a genius. Deco, who understands the value of a forward with confidence and rhythm, pointed to something more psychological and emotional, saying the club are happy because Lamine is enjoying himself and has regained that spark. That enjoyment matters, because players who feel free tend to take the risks that create decisive moments. Gerard Martin, speaking as a teammate who sees the work up close every day, summed it up even more directly by calling him world class.
From the coaching side, there was another revealing detail in Albacete. Hansi Flick rotated parts of the starting eleven at the Carlos Belmonte, as managers often do in cup competitions to manage fatigue and maintain freshness across competitions. But Lamine did not rest. He played the full 90 minutes. Flick justified the decision with a clear message: Lamine is in top shape. And the player himself backed up that assessment by delivering another performance that confirmed he is neither physically drained nor mentally tired of stepping into the spotlight.
That last point is becoming part of the narrative. Some young players need to be protected from pressure, rotated carefully, eased in and out. Lamine, at least at this moment, looks like a player who thrives on responsibility. He wants the ball in big moments. He wants to be the protagonist. He is not hiding behind the collective, he is driving the collective forward.
For Barcelona, the timing could not be better. The Copa del Rey now enters the stage where a single moment can decide a season. In LaLiga, margins are thin and leadership means little if you cannot keep delivering results week after week. In the Champions League, the level rises sharply and the difference between progression and elimination can be one moment of quality. Having a player in “blistering form” is always valuable, but having a teenager producing like a top level star across all competitions gives Barcelona something even more powerful: unpredictability, belief, and the feeling that in any match, even a tight one, they have someone who can break it.
This is why the story is not just about a quarterfinal win, or about reaching the semifinals for the 62nd time. It is about Barcelona’s season being carried, in key moments, by an 18 year old who is playing with the joy of a kid and the efficiency of an elite attacker. Lamine Yamal has started 2026 as if he is determined to make every competition feel possible for Barcelona, and right now, the rest of football is struggling to keep up with him.
Updated: 11:20, 4 Feb 2026
