Cup Anguish For European Heavyweights

The prospect of a fixture congestion has loosened its grip on several of Europe’s household names as the continent’s heavyweights bowed out of their domestic cup competitions. The phenomenon of the underdog has struck again in Spain, France and England as the reigning champions of each nation have been crushed in their search for their first silverware of the season.

Pressure has mounted on Bernd Schuster following Real Madrid’s exit from the Copa del Rey at the hands of lowly third-tier Real Union. From the perspective of a neutral, both legs of the match were thrilling encounters and the battle was far more balanced than the team sheets falsely suggested. Raul’s hat-trick was pure consolation and his 300th club goal undeservedly came under unfortunate circumstances, but Madrid folded 6-6 on aggregate and were left rueing the defensive mistakes which have haunted them in the past seven days. Eneko Romo was the hero for the visitors after he headed in the 90th minute to salvage progression into the last 32 at the expense of the Spanish champions. It is widely reported that a shortlist of candidates to replace Schuster is being created in the event of another defeat at the hands of Valladolid this weekend.

To mount further problems for Madrid, Ruud Van Nistelrooy is expected to miss the remainder of the season after having knee surgery.

Shocks were aplenty in Spain as Villareal also lost their cup tie against Polideportivo Ejido. The outcome of this match had already been predicted after Villareal’s shocking 5-0 defeat two weeks before and it would have needed a miracle to overturn it. Any hopes of an exhilarating comeback were soon forgotten about as they stumbled to a 1-1 draw and an even more degrading aggregate score. Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Valencia experienced no such drawbacks after beating Benidorm, Orihuela and Portugalete respectively.

In France, Lyon lost to Metz in the fourth round of the French League Cup and elsewhere English powerhouses Chelsea and Liverpool crashed out of the Carling Cup to Championship outfit Burnley and Premiership revivalists Tottenham.