Real Madrid complete the line-up for the semi-finals after a 1-3 victory at Girona on Thursday. Already 2-4 up from last week, Dani Carvajal and Vinicius set up Benzema to score two more before the interval. With twenty minutes to go Pedro Porro ran through to net for the Catalans, but any hope of a comeback ended when Marco Llorente fired home a third soon afterwards. It is the first time in five seasons that Madrid have got this far, and they will be hoping to reach the final, which this season will take place on 25 th May in Betis’s Benito Villamarín stadium. (31.01.19)
Barcelona are through to the semi-finals once again after an impressive 6-1 win over Sevilla on Wednesday evening! 2-0 down from the first leg, Coutinho got one back with an early penalty after Promes tripped Messi in the area. Soon afterwards the visitors were awarded a penalty of their own after Piqué fouled Roque, but Cillessen saved Banega’s spot kick, and before half time Rakitic had levelled the tie from Arthur’s long pass. A Coutinho header and an angled shot from Sergi Roberto in the ten minutes after the restart seemed to have wrapped things up, but Arana fired home an important away goal before Luis Suárez and Messi made sure of the result in the final minutes. There will be one team from Sevilla in the last four however, Betis beating Barça’s neighbours Espanyol 3-1 earlier in the evening. As in the first leg, the Catalans took the lead, this time through Leo Baptistao in his last game before moving on to China. Once again however Betis equalised, Lo Celso beating Roberto with a quarter of an hour to go to take the tie into extra time, and the visitors were left with ten men when Marc Roca was sent off after picking up a second yellow card. Soon afterwards Sergio León cut across to score a second, and Mandi got a third following a corner to take the Andalusians into the semis for the first time in 14 years. (30.01.19)
Valencia are the first team to qualify for the semi-finals of the cup after a last gasp 3-1 victory over Getafe on Tuesday. The Ches appeared to be down and out when Jorge Molina added to the visitors’ one goal lead from the first leg with less than a minute on the clock. Rodrigo though connected with Cheryshev’s cross to level the scores on the hour mark, and a few minutes later Djené was sent off for a second bookable offence. It was not until injury time however that Rodrigo scored two more to complete his hat-trick, the assists by Santi Mina and Gameiro, both from crosses by Kangin Lee. (29.01.19)