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Barcelona advance past Espanyol in Copa del Rey with two El Haddadi goals

Munir El Haddadi scored both of Barcelona's goals as they recorded a 2-0 win at Espanyol to cruise through in the Copa del Rey.

Holding a 4-1 first-leg advantage from an ill-tempered clash at the Nou Camp seven days ago, Barca, who were without banned forward Luis Suarez, were never troubled by their cross-city rivals.

Their hero on the night was 20-year-old forward Munir, who doubled his tally for the season and for this competition with goals in either half as Luis Enrique's side marched on with a 6-1 aggregate victory.

Barca had to cope without Suarez due to a retrospective two-match suspension he incurred for comments allegedly made in the tunnel after the feisty first-leg encounter when two Espanyol players were dismissed.

They did hand a start to Lionel Messi two days after he won his fifth Ballon d'Or award and Barcelona's talisman twice came close to marking the achievement with an early goal.

On both occasions he was denied by goalkeeper Francesco Bardi as he produced some acrobatics to thwart Messi from the edge of the box before pushing away his left-footed try.

Munir then put Barcelona ahead on the night in the 32nd minute after being put through by Messi.

The Argentinian rolled a perfectly-measured pass between the hosts' two centre-backs to allow Munir to move around Bardi, and he remained on his feet long enough to lift a left-footed finish into the net.

Espanyol nearly got back on level terms prior to the interval but Marc-Andre ter Stegen stood tall and was able to divert Felipe Caicedo's try wide after he had collected a free-kick.

Caicedo was a threat after the break too, forcing Ter Stegen into another pair of saves, the latter with his feet as the Ecuadorian forward appealed in vain for a penalty.

There were few opportunities for either side in the second period as a scrappy affair ensued with seven yellow cards being distributed over the 90 minutes.

But Munir would get his second at the death to wrap up victory on the night for the visitors.

Barcelona survived two offside shouts in the move, firstly against Aleix Vidal and then Munir himself, yet the flag stayed down as the latter tapped home from six yards out.

Vidal, who provided the first-time assist, almost scored himself after that but Michael Ciani got across to stop Messi's pass coming into his path.