MADRID, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The first leg matches in the last 16 of the Spanish Copa del Rey knockout competition kick off on Tuesday night and the next three days will see what promises to be some dramatic football.
Tuesday sees Valencia, fresh from a disappointing 2-1 defeat away to Alaves, visit Sporting Gijon, the only surviving second division side in the tournament. Valencia travel with coach Marcelino Garcia Toral, who is being questioned by fans following a poor first half of the season which sees them with just 22 points in the league and already out of the Champions League.
Marcelino's problems are nothing compared to those of Santiago Solari at Real Madrid after last weekend's 2-0 defeat to Real Sociedad.
Madrid entertain Leganes, who knocked them out of the competition last season, and with Gareth Bale, Manuel Llorente, Marco Asensio and Tony Kroos all out injured.
Both sides will probably rotate their usual starting elevens, but another setback would be catastrophic for Solari's future at the club after slipping to 10 points behind Barca in the league.
Wednesday also sees second place Atletico Madrid visit Girona, while Getafe take on Valladolid in a tie with Getafe as favorites.
Meanwhile Villarreal, who dropped back into the bottom three following Athletic Club Bilbao's win away to Celta on Monday, are at home to Espanyol, who ended a run of six league defeats with a narrow win over Leganes last Friday.
Athletic Club and Sevilla have the first of three meetings within a week on Thursday. In addition to two Cup games within 7 days, the two teams also face each other in the Liga Santander on Sunday night.
Betis entertain Real Sociedad, who travel in the wake of their first win in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in 15 years, while Barcelona continue their quest to become the first team to ever win 5 consecutive Cups when they visit Levante.
Barca won a league game 5-0 in the Ciudad de Valencia stadium shortly before Christmas and it will be interesting to see what changes Ernesto Valverde makes to his usual starting 11, although recent signing Jeison Murillo is likely to make his first start following a loan move from Valencia.
