Listless Real slump to cup defeat at Tarragona

An Aitor Karanka own goal gave Spanish second division strugglers Gimnastic Tarragona a deserved 1-0 victory over a listless Real Madrid in their King's Cup fourth round, first leg tie at the Nou Estadi on Wednesday.

The Real central defender turned a cross into his own net eight minutes from time to give the Catalan team a slim advantage to take into next week's second leg at the Bernabeu.

Cordoba also managed to get the better of higher ranked opposition as they claimed a 2-1 win against Real Mallorca.

Cup veterans Athletic Bilbao, who have notched a total of 23 titles in their history, looked to be heading for a comfortable win against Salamanca after taking a two goal lead by halftime.

But the second division side pulled back to level at 2-2 with 17 minutes to go and are sure to make life uncomfortable for the Basque side in the return leg.

Villarreal, however, made no mistake in their tie against second division opponents as a second half double from young midfielder Jorge Lopez helped them to a 4-2 win against Sporting Gijon.

Deportivo Coruna booked their place in the quarter-finals on Tuesday after opponents Hospitalet carried out their threat not to move from their stadium to play their first leg tie.

The third division side, who normally play on an artificial pitch, rejected the Spanish Football Federation's ruling that the home leg of the tie should be played on the grass surface at Barcelona's Mini Estadi.

Real coach Vicente del Bosque decided to leave Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Roberto Carlos in Madrid and give a run out to a number of players who have spent most of the season on the bench.

But the Real replacements failed to impress and were consistently outfought by their opponents who forced several sharp saves from Real's stand-in goalkeeper Cesar.

Winger Lluis Codina was a constant thorn in the side of the Real defence on the right flank and it was his cross that was eventually turned into the net by Karanka.

Former Real Madrid youth player Felix Prieto came close to extending Gimnastic's lead in injury time, but once again the impressive Cesar came to Real's rescue.

Real were unable to muster a single convincing attack and leading striker Raul, making his first appearance in the Cup this season, hardly touched the ball before he was substituted midway through the second half.