Copa del Rey

Third round

Regional third division side SD Formentera are in to the fourth round of the cup after knocking out Tudelano on penalties on Wednesday evening! The Balearic Islanders held on to a 0-0 draw for 120 minutes despite having Piña sent off at the start of extra time, and their keeper Marcos saved two spot kicks in the shoot out. They will be joined by five other 2B sides, including Guijuelo, who knocked out the only other third division team Cirbonero. The game finished goal-less at the end of normal time, but although David González scored for the hosts in extra time, Pepe Carmona and Aitor Aspas netted twice to take the Castilla-León side (of the famous ham shirts!) through 1-2 overall.

The other four sides who qualified all have experience in the higher divisions, most notably Racing Santander, who beat Amorebieta 2-0 with a Dani Aquino penalty and a late strike from César Díaz. Hércules won 2-1 against Cornellà, goals either side of half time by Javi Flores and Gaspar (from the penalty spot) putting the Alicante based team two up before Ahmed pulled one back for the Catalans, and Cultural Leonesa came from behind to beat Albacete 2-1 in extra time. Aketxe had given the Manchegans the lead, but Carlos Delgado was sent off, and Mario Ortíz levelled it before Galler got the winner. Toledo meanwhile clocked up a 4-1 victory against Caudal, Jaime momentarliy cancelling out Zarko’s first half strike, but Toni, Lolo Pla and Pablo González netting three times after the restart. All will be paired with the clubs who are playing European competitions this year in Friday’s draw.

Six second division teams will also be in the hat for the fourth round, including bottom club Nàstic, who earned themselves a respite after beating Rayo Vallecano on penalties. Maloku put the Catalans in front midway through the first half, but Manucho made it 1-1, and Dimitrievski saved a Miku penalty to take the game in to extra time and the shoot out. The tie between Valladolid and Tenerife also went in to extra time, but strikes by substitutes De Tomás and Drazic in a heavy rainstorm gave the locals a 3-1 victory. Drazic had already opened the scoring for his team with ten minutes to go, but another substitute Amath equalized soon afterwards for the Canary Islanders.

UCAM Murcia are also through after they won 1-2 at Mallorca in a mid-day kick-off, Juanma giving them an early lead with a well struck free kick, and Imaz getting the winning goal after Salomao had made it all square. And Córdoba classified for the next round after a 1-2 victory against regional rivals Cádiz, Piovaccari sealing the win with a header past Jesús Fernández some five minutes before the break. Juli had put the visitors in front midway through the first half, but Aitor levelled the scores a few minutes later. The six survivors from the “Liga 1|2|3” will be seeded to meet one of the other first division sides, with ties to be played over two legs at the beginning of December. (12.10.16)

Alcorcón are the first of the second division teams to qualify for the fourth round of the Spanish cup after they won 0-1 at Elche on Tuesday evening. Hugo Fraile wasted several chances to put the locals ahead, and with a quarter of an hour to go Luis Fernández intercepted a bad back pass by José Angel to score what was to prove the only goal of the game. Even so the home side could have levelled it late on, Dmitrovic having to save from Hervías, and Nino hitting the post. All the other ties take place tomorrow, a public holiday in Spain, with the eleven winners plus Huesca (who have been given a bye) going in to Friday’s draw with the 20 first division clubs. (11.10.16)