Madrid (AFP)
A week after the 2-1 elimination in the semifinals of the Supercopa de Espana, Zinédine Zidane and Real Madrid were eliminated from the Copa del Rey by a Spanish D3 team, Alcoyano, 2-1 after extra time on Wednesday, and plunge into crisis one month from the knockout stages of C1.
Eder Militao opened the scoring with a header on a perfect cross from Marcelo just before the break (45th), but the Merengues were pushed beyond regulation time by the surprise equalizer from Jose Solbes at the end of the match (80th) , then ended up being beaten at the end of extra time after the goal of Juanan Casanova (115th).
Double failure for Zidane and the Merengues: a week after the rout in the semifinals of the Supercopa de Espana against the future winner Athletic Bilbao (2-1), the Merengues suffered another big disillusionment on Wednesday.
Widely reworked, the illustrious Real was abused on the dented ground of this modest team of Alcoy (east of Spain, between Valencia and Alicante), which soon worried Andriy Lunin about this attacker's head Moroccan Mourad El Ghezouani (33rd), narrowly pushed over his crossbar by the young Ukrainian goalkeeper.
And Zidane's tense smile at the end of the match now hides deeper concerns, because Real has chained a third game without success, and his tactical choices did not pay off on Wednesday.
If a skewer of stars spared garnished the white bench (Hazard, Benzema, Courtois, Kroos ...), on the ground, Zidane decided to establish the Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin (21 years old) and the central defender Victor Chust (20 years old) ) for their first pro, and to relaunch Eder Militao, Alvaro Odriozola, Mariano Diaz or even Isco ...
But he was forced to bring in his stars at the end of the match (Benzema, 67th) and in overtime (Kroos and Hazard, 99th) to try to avoid humiliation ... Failed.
A small month before the knockout stages of the Champions League, which will see the Madrilenians face Atalanta Bergamo (first leg February 24, return March 16), Real has reopened its wounds, and Zidane is still worried.
Earlier this Wednesday, Real Sociedad won 2-0 without worries on the lawn of Cordoba (D3) thanks to a nice double from Willian José (57th, 84th), while Andalusian midfielder Alberto del Morale was excluded at the end of the match (88th), leaving his teammates to ten to finish the game.
Thursday at 9:00 p.m., FC Barcelona will enter the competition against Cornella, the Spanish D3 team that eliminated Atlético Madrid in the previous round.
Athletic Bilbao, winner of the Spanish Supercup final on Sunday at the expense of Barça (3-2 after extra time), will travel to Ibiza (D3) a little earlier (7:00 p.m.) the same evening.
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