Raul hat-trick rescues sloppy Madrid
Raul netted a hat-trick to send 10-man Real Madrid through to the King's Cup quarter-finals with a spectacular 4-2 win over Gimnastic Tarragona in Tuesday's fourth round, second leg clash at the Bernabeu.
Raul netted a hat-trick to send 10-man Real Madrid through to the King's Cup quarter-finals with a spectacular 4-2 win over Gimnastic Tarragona in Tuesday's fourth round, second leg clash at the Bernabeu.
Real, trailing 1-0 from the first leg against the second division strugglers, found themselves in deep trouble as they fell 1-0 and 2-1 behind on the night.
Some vibrant attacking play either side of half-time gave Real a winning 4-2 lead by the 47th minute, though, and they managed to survive the sending-off of goalkeeper Iker Casillas with 10 minutes to go to clinch a 4-3 aggregate victory.
Real coach Vicente del Bosque recalled the likes of Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Zinedine Zidane to his starting line-up in a bid to overturn last week's shock 1-0 defeat in the first leg.
They were rocked immediately, though, when former Real Betis forward Angel Manuel Cuellar doubled Nastic's advantage inside the first minute.
Raul equalised four minutes later when he was left unmarked to head in a Zidane cross from close range.
Tarragona, who are currently second from bottom in division two, took the lead once more on 14 minutes, as the outstanding Cuellar cut in from the right and supplied a brilliant low cross for Manolo Herrero to poke in.
That left Real needing three goals to go through and they finally set about the job in hand, launching wave after wave of attacks against a nervous Nastic defence.
Guti got Real back level on the night on 29 minutes as he raced on to a pass from Zidane, held off one defender and slipped the ball low past keeper Joaquin Moso.
Just when it appeared Nastic were about to hang on until half time with the scores level, Raul made it 3-2 in injury time, taking advantage of a misjudged backheader to clip the ball in.
Raul completed his hat-trick two minutes into the second half to put his side ahead in the tie at last.
Moso failed to clear after racing from his goal, giving Guti space to cut the ball back for his strike partner to slot in and make it 4-2 on the night, 4-3 on aggregate.
Casillas was red-carded for bringing down Santi Castillejo on the edge of the box.
Real join Deportivo Coruna in the quarter-finals after Javier Irureta's side won their tie against Hospitalet on a forfeit. The other six ties were due to be decided on Wednesday.