The defending champ and reigning league champs saw a premature exit as they fell to Barcelona and Mallorca respectively. These were two of the most prominent results in one of the more exciting finished in recent Copa history.

Real Madrid’s finishing along with inspired play by Moyá and second half substitute Ariel Ibagaza downed Los Merengues 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabéu. Argentine forwards Javier Saviola and Gonzalo Higuaín wasted various opportunities on goal outshooting the islanders by a grand total of 21-4, but it was Ibagaza that would come up with the brilliant jewel that night beating Fabio Cannavaro and chipping the ball over Jerzy Dudek and into the net. The goal deflated the home side and they showed their disapproval of coach Bernd Schuster’s tactics when he substituted Royster Drenthe, who was Madrid’ biggest offensive threat for a out of form Wesley Sneijder. The move was for the Dutch international to come in for an exhausted Michel Salgado who looked like he aged another 10 years by the middle of the second half.

Sevilla, without Frederic Kanoute and Keita, could not muster up enough offense and saw Barcelona move on on away gals as Barcelona saw their pretensions to win their 25th Copa del Rey remained alive.

Athletic Bilbao, who is tied with Barcelona for most cup wins, miraculously advanced after drawing with Espanyol and being down in penalty kicks. For Espanyol’s Marc Torrejó it was deja vú all over again after missing the final penalty of the shootout just like he did in last year´s final of the UEFA Cup in Glasgow.

Future Italian international and New Jersey native Giuseppe Rossi led the Yellow Submarine to victory in the extra time as he scored in the 101st minute to beat Recreativo 2-0

Barcelona 0-0 Sevilla
BAR adv. on away goals

Real Madrid 0-1 Mallorca
MLL: Ibagaza 82´
MLL adv. on 1-3 agg.

Villarreal 2-0 Recreativo
VIL: Senna 9′, Rossi 101′
VIL adv. on 2-1 agg.

Espanyol 1-1 Athletic Blibao
ESP: Luis García 9′
ATB: Iraola 83´
ATB adv. on PKs 3-4

Valencia 2-1 Betis
VAL: Zigic 8′, Vicente 67′
BET: Juanito 77′
VAL adv. on 4-2 agg.

Zaragoza 2-4 Racing
ZAR: Oliveira 6′, Milito 80′, Serrano 67′, Garay 90′-PK
RAC: Tchité 24′, Oriol 33′
RAC adv. on 3-5 agg.

Levante 0-1 Getafe
GET: Gavilán 65′
GET: adv. on 0-4 agg.

Valladolid 1-1 Atlético
VAL: Llorente 70′
ATM: Agüero 48′
ATM adv. on away goals

Quarterfinal Ties (to be played 1/23 and 1/30)

Barcelona- Villarreal

Valencia- Atlético

Getafe – Mallorca

Racing- Bilbao