Andrés Iniesta chose the perfect stage for his last waltz, gliding across the grass as Barcelona sliced through Sevilla. A 5-0 victory brought their fourth consecutive Copa del Rey and the 34th trophy of Iniesta’s career. A 35th will follow before he departs for China, 16 years after his debut. With five games remaining Barcelona are a win away from the league title and another double.

Saturday night’s victory was secured with two goals from Luis Suárez and one each from Lionel Messi, Iniesta and Philippe Coutinho but it was marked by the man from La Mancha. When he departed with three minutes to go, embracing team-mates as he went, the crowd stood and applauded – at both ends.

Sevilla 0-5 Barcelona: Copa del Rey final – as it happened Read more

Although he is yet to announce his departure officially, the decision is made – too soon, some believe. On the evidence of this remarkable night they have a point. Iniesta felt that the time was right; the way he went was right too. He did not want to drift towards the end. Instead they will remember him like this, an expression of what he has been since Louis van Gaal gave him his debut, telling him: “There’s the pitch. It’s yours. Play.” Here, he played. Sevilla had no response to him, to Messi, to Suárez, to Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic, or indeed to Coutinho, the man whose impossible task it will be to replace Iniesta.

Iniesta’s final was 13 minutes old when Luis Suárez turned the ball into the net at one end and, while Messi and Coutinho ran towards him, way down at the other end Jordi Alba and Samuel Umtiti instead leapt into the arms of Jasper Cillissen. The backup goalkeeper, handed responsibility in the cup, had made it with an astonishing 70-yard pass, struck cleanly, speared beyond the Sevilla defence. Coutinho dashed into the area and pulled the ball across the six-yard box for Suárez. Five touches over almost a hundred yards had given Barcelona the lead. Suárez has played in five finals for Barcelona; in all five he has scored.

If that was an unusual route to goal, there was something a bit more “Barcelona” about the second, and something unmistakably Barcelona about this display at the end of a season during which there have been questions over them losing their identity.

Alba-Messi has been the most significant society in their side this season, Iniesta-Messi perhaps the most significant over the last decade and now living out its final days. This time the three of them combined. Messi to Iniesta to Alba to Iniesta and to Alba again. Dashing into the area, the full-back was momentarily halted but he back-heeled into the path of Messi, who lifted the ball into the net. It was the 28th goal he has scored in a final and it already felt as if it marked the end of this one, such was Barça’s superiority.

Barcelona dominated, the ball moved swiftly, smoothly, the performance perhaps their best of the season. Iniesta, Busquets, Messi and the rest took control and Sevilla could only very occasionally find a way out, invariably led by Jesús Navas. Franco Vázquez headed the best opportunity into the arms of Cillissen but the game was being played at the other end and to the rhythm of the team in red and blue.

It had begun with David Soria’s superb save from Messi’s free-kick. Iniesta had a shot rebound off the bar and Messi was twice sent clean through into space. On the first he was wrongly pulled back for offside; on the second he was pulled back by the shorts. And with five minutes to go until half-time, there was a third. The move started at the back and ended with Messi sending Suárez through to score. The move for the fourth started with the Uruguayan winning the ball back and ended with nostalgia flooding through this arena as Iniesta and Messi combined again.

The ball went from Iniesta to Messi and back, leaving Iniesta in front of Soria. He stepped round the goalkeeper as he has stepped round so many players and scored. There was something in the celebration that expressed the significance of it but this was not over. When Suárez produced a wonderful flick, Lenglet blocked it with his hand and Coutinho scored the penalty for 5-0, a scoreline with a deep symbolism in Barcelona’s history. With three minutes to go, Iniesta took his final bow. He sat briefly as the fans chanted his name, before getting back up to collect the trophy.