Five more first division sides were knocked out of the cup tonight. By far the biggest shock though was the elimination of Barcelona at the hands of Novelda. Geovanni gave Van Gaal's side the lead, but two goals from Madrigal after the break turned the result around. Riquelme equalised from the penalty spot, but then Madrigal completed his hat-trick to eliminate the Catalans in the first round for the second year in a row.

That's not as bad though as Real Sociedad, who lost out in the first round for the fifth season in a row after falling 3-1 at Zaragoza. Soriano gave the home side the lead, but things appeared to go wrong when Kolmjenovic was sent off a few minutes later after giving away a penalty which De Pedro transformed. However Yordi restored the lead, also from the penalty spot, a minute later, and Drulic finished things off near the end.

Racing Santander and Rayo Vallecano were both knocked out by sides from the second division B. Racing lost 3-2 to Real Unión, despite going in at half time in front after Javi Guerrero opened the scoring and Regueiro put them back in front following Badiola's equaliser. However Sergio Francisco struck twice in ten minutes after the restart to put the team from Irún through to the next round.

Rayo Vallecano lost 2-1 to Cultural Leonesa after the game finished all square after 90 minutes, Michel II equalising a Angel Luis penalty. However José Vega hit the winner at the end of the first half of extra time.

It was a bad day for Barcelona, as the city's other first division side Espanyol were also knocked out by a second division B team, losing 1-0 to Alicante. Garitano got the goal with twelve minutes to go, and Espanyol's Alex was sent off for a second bookable offence. Not a good day for the twin strike force of Milosevic and Tamudo, playing together in an official match for the first time.

Talking of twin strike forces, Luque and Diego Tristán also made their official debut together for defending cup winners Deportivo in the displaced game against Corralejo. They fared a bit better, with Luque opening the scoring early on. A few doubts did creep in when Simon scored from the penalty spot, but César hit the winner after the interval.

There was no question though who were the most successful pairing of the day. All the talk of Ronaldo and Raúl at Real Madrid, but Del Bosque gave Tote and Portillo a run out against the only third division club left in the competition, San Sebastian de los Reyes. There was a small scare as Sanse took the lead through Roa, but the two youngsters scored a hat-trick each, and Solari and Morientes also got in on the act to record a scandalous 1-8 win.

Madrid's neighbours Atlético are usually good for a cup run, although they had to come from a goal down on Lanzarote's artificial pitch to run out 1-2 winners. Fernando Torres cancelled out Sergio's early goal (both from the penalty spot), and Movilla scored a screamer with ten minutes to go to knock out the Canary Island side.

Another of the league's most successful cup sides Athletic Bilbao also won 1-2 at Amurrio, with all three goals coming in the first half.Veterans Julen Guerrero and Urzaiz scored for Jupp Heynckes' team, with Java replying for the hosts.

The same result too for Valladolid, who beat Sporting Gijon thanks to a late goal from Sousa. Aganzo had put them in front in the first half, but Villa made it all square shortly after Valladolid's Peña had been sent off.

Valencia struggled to make it through, and only did so on penalties after the game against Gimnastic Tarragona ended goal-less. With Cañizares and four other first team players touring China, Palop took over in goal and saved Herrero's kick to put the league champions through 4-5 on the shoot out.

Málaga also had to resort to the penalty shoot out against Extremadura, which they won 1-4 thanks to two saves from Contreras. Earlier on Dely Valdés had given them the lead from another penalty, although Romerito levelled the scores to take the match into extra time. Darío Silva was sent off for retaliating in the first half.

Alavés also had their work cut out to defeat a valiant Barakaldo, ending up 1-3 winners thanks to two goals in extra time from Iván Alonso and Rubén Navarro. Astudillo had given them the lead in the first minute of the second half, but Arregui forced the extra 30 minutes with a 90th minute free kick.

Mallorca left it to the last minute as well, but they didn't need penalties to finish off Gramanet. Novo's last minute strike following a corner was enough to give them a 0-1 win.

Celta also won by a single away goal at Burgos, scored by Edu with half an hour gone. There was nobody from the home side in the directors' box to watch though, the club president and the entire board resigning before the game with the club once again in financial difficulties.

Sevilla's two sides both won 0-3 away to qualify for the second round without too much trouble. Betis manager Víctor Fernández gave a run out to Gastón Casas, and he made full use of his opportunity hitting a hat-trick against Jerez de los Caballeros, with a little help of course from an on-form Denilson.

Sevilla defeated Jaén by the same score, although they didn't get going until the last quarter of an hour of the match. Moisés scored twice, both from headers, and Gallardo added the third from a Marcos Vales pass for a flattering result.

Elsewhere 2B side Palamós got the second highest score of the day, beating Elche 6-1, and they and Terrassa, 2-0 victors over Levante, are Cataluña's only representatives left in the competition. The two Canary Island sides relegated from the top flight last season are both out, Tenerife losing 2-0 at Numancia and Las Palmas falling 2-1 to Getafe. Linares became the seventh second division B side to reach the second round after beating Leganés 1-0, although Motril went close to joining them, only losing in the penalty shoot out to Badajoz after the game finished 1-1. Eibar sneaked through 1-2 against Albacete with a last minute Kortina goal, Xerez had no trouble beating Cacereño 0-2 and Almería defeated Córdoba 3-2 thanks to an extra time goal from Jorge Pérez.

Finally Villarreal decided to sack manager Víctor Muñoz after their defeat at the hands of Hércules the day before. Paquito takes over as caretaker while they look for a new man, and Javier Clemente is one of the favourites to take over. And the season is only one week old!
See previous days' match reports. (11.09.02)