Athletic Club will face Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Cup. Celta will do so with Real Sociedad, Mallorca against Girona and Atlético against Sevilla as the other great duel in this tie. The draw provides for very close duels and allows teams from the bottom of the table, such as Celta or Mallorca, to have the option of reaching a round as advanced as the semifinals. The clashes between Athletic and Barcelona, and Atlético-Sevilla, seem to be the most notable, the prelude to real great games. The Copa del Rey enters its decisive phase with the quarterfinals, a phase that will be played on Wednesday and Thursday of next week (January 24 and 25). Eight First Division teams have reached these quarterfinals, which will continue to be played in a single match and with a pure draw as there are no longer lower category teams. Unionistas, from the First Federation and eliminated by Barcelona, and Tenerife, from the Second, which lost against Mallorca, were the last teams from the lowest division that still survived in the Cup.
“It will be a game to give everything on the field. We have options and we are going for the semifinals,” clarified Isaac Romero, the Sevilla striker who scored two goals in the round of 16 match against Getafe (1-3 for the Andalusians), regarding the duel against Atlético. This match will be played on Thursday, as Simeone’s team plays its League match this Monday in Granada. The case of Sevilla is curious, which has not played a home match in the Cup in front of its fans since January 21, 2020, when it did so against Levante (3-1). The last time Atlético and Sevilla met in the Cup was in 2018, although in a double match, with the victory of the Sevillians, then coached by Italian coach Vincenzo Montella. Sevilla reached the final played precisely in the red and white stadium, although in that match Barcelona, on Iniesta’s stellar night, won by a resounding 5-0. Athletic-Barcelona is a classic of Spanish football. A tie, furthermore, that measures the two best historical teams in the entire competition. A total of 54 cup titles distributed as follows: 31 for Barcelona and 23 for Athletic, plus 11 finals lost by the Catalans and 16 by the Basques.
There is only one precedent in the duel between Mallorca and Girona. It was a single match match with a 4-2 victory for the Balearic Islands in the fifth round of the competition. This match took place on March 13, 1949. Celta and Real Sociedad meet this weekend in the League and they will also do so in the Cup. The last precedent also occurred in the quarterfinals, with qualification for the Basque team after a 1-1 draw in Balaídos and 2-0 in Anoeta.
Madrid and Osasuna, the two finalists of the last edition, fell in the round of 16. In the 2023 edition, the 2022 champion, Betis, also fell in the round of 16. The Cup is raising great expectations. The clash between Atlético and Madrid, this Thursday, broadcast openly on TVE-1, had a large audience. The Madrid derby brought together 4,771,000 people in front of the television (32% of share), reaching almost five million in extra time, with 4,992,000 viewers. The Cup final will be played on April 6 at the La Cartuja stadium in Seville.