No big surprises but favorites all suffer in Copa del Rey

Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-23 07:45:48|Editor: ZD
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MADRID, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Although there were no major surprises in Wednesday's games in the third round of Spain's Copa del Rey knockout competition with all of the favorites making it into the last 16, nearly all of them were forced to suffer in order to book their spot in the next round.

FC Barcelona needed two goals in the last 20 minutes from Antoine Griezmann to overturn Pep Caballle's ninth minute opener for third tier Ibiza.

Barca controlled nearly all of the ball against the third tier minnows, but Griezmann didn't equalize until the 72nd minute and the winner didn't arrive until the fourth minute of injury time to spare Barca's blushes as new coach Quique Setien struggles to make an impact.

There were only 4,000 fans in the Las Pistas Stadium to watch Unionistas Salamanca (also from the third tier) give Real Madrid a fright when Alvaro Romeo's 57th minute goal cancelled out Gareth Bale's opener for Madrid.

Zinedine Zidane's men needed an own goal to retake the lead before Brahim Diaz gave the score an extra sheen with Madrid's third goal in injury time.

Cup holders Valencia had to withstand an excellent second half display from Logrones, before they went through 1-0 thanks to Maxi Gomez's 15th minute header, while Athletic Club Bilbao needed a tense penalty shoot out before qualifying 5-4 on penalties after it ended 1-1 after 120 minutes away to second division Elche.

Granada had to play extra time before progressing 3-1 away to third tier Badalona, while second half goals from Ramon Funes Mori, Santi Cazorla and Samuel Chukwueze saw Villarreal through away to Girona.

Real Sociedad beat Espanyol 2-0 in an all-top flight affair with goals from Ander Barranextra ad Alexander Isak, while Tenerife produced the only surprise of the night as thy came back from a goal down to book their place in the last 16 with a 2-1 win at home to Zaragoza.

Tuesday saw Sevilla, Osasuna and second division Zaragoza all reach the last 16 with the remaining games to be played on Thursday night.

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