Zaragoza (1) 2 - Racing Santander (1) 0

Zaragoza cruised through to the semi-finals with a comfortable two goal victory over Racing Santander. Both sides took the tie seriously, with Zaragoza looking for a ticket to Europe for next season and Racing hoping to reach the semi-finals for the first time in their history. Zaragoza's caretaker manager Luis Costa was in charge temporarily when they won the cup in 1986, and everyone remembered their last victory in 1994 when they went on to win the cupwinners cup the following season with Nayim's famous last minute goal against Arsenal from the halfway line. Esnaider, who played in that game in his last spell at the club, passed a late fitness test, as did Toro Acuña and Aguado, who proved to be matchwinners in this game. Costa was missing Pablo and Sundgren, still injured, and Aragón, who was banned after being sent off in the first leg. Racing's manager Gregorio Manzano brought in three of his new signings, Ramis, Cárdenas and Regueiros, all of whom were in the starting line up for the first time, with Amavisca and Manjarín on the bench being rested for Racing's key league game with Barcelona at the weekend. However they had not given up hopes of going through, and surprised their hosts with attacking football right from the start. But as one commentator said, "to a lazy dog everything is fleas" (it loses a bit on translation I admit), and after Acuña hit the post early on, the Paraguayan international opened the scoring with a free kick which took an unfortunate deflection off a defender to catch Ceballos off guard. At the other end Arzeno was unlucky to see his close up header ricochet off the cross bar and out, and when another Acuña free kick found Aguado's head around the hour mark Racing were out. Zaragoza's up and down season continues, and after being eliminated from the UEFA cup in the first round, they now have another bite at the cherry. Racing now have to concentrate on staying up, the cup run having stretched their resources too far. Get out the flea powder.