Third division Novelda dump Barca out of Cup
Barcelona were dumped out of the King's Cup by third division Novelda, a hat-trick from Antonio Madrigal clinching a 3-2 victory for the underdogs in a dramatic first-round clash.
Barcelona were dumped out of the King's Cup by third division Novelda, a hat-trick from Antonio Madrigal clinching a 3-2 victory for the underdogs in a dramatic first-round clash.
Barcelona were one of six top flight sides to go out as the first round of the King's Cup, which automatically gives home advantage to lower division sides, brought its usual tally of surprises.
Racing Santander lost 3-2 at Real Union de Irun, Espanyol were beaten 1-0 at Alicante, Real Sociedad suffered a 3-1 mauling at Real Zaragoza and Rayo Vallecano lost 2-1 to Cultural Leonesa in extra-time.
Villarreal were beaten 2-1 by Hercules on Tuesday, a result that cost coach Victor Munoz his job.
Cup favourites Real Madrid looked in danger of joining the list of shocks when they fell behind to fourth division San Sebastian de los Reyes.
The European champions, missing most of their leading players, eventually got their act together, though, and ended up 8-1 winners, with Tote and Javier Portillo both grabbing hat-tricks.
Holders Deportivo Coruna also made it safely through, although they were made to work a lot harder before clinching a 2-1 win over third division Corralejo.
Reigning league champions Valencia eventually joined them in the second round draw with a victory over Gimnastic Tarragona on penalties after 120 goalless minutes.
The huge shock of the night came at Novelda, who fought back from an early goal from Barca's Brazilian forward Geovanni to hand the Catalan giants their first defeat of the season.
Madrigal beat Michael Reiziger to a cross to the far post to level the scores on 59 minutes and the quick-thinking striker pounced on a loose ball to put his side ahead six minutes later.
That lead lasted just three minutes as Juan Roman Riquelme smacked in a penalty after Fabio Rochemback was held in the area but Madrigal was on hand again to convert at the far post with a header that goalkeeper Robert Enke should have saved.
"We played badly after scoring the first goal," Barcelona coach Louis van Gaal conceded. "We made individual errors and failed to create enough chances."