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Real Madrid advance to fifth round

Real Madrid's Jose Maria ``Guti'' Gutierrez celebrates his second goal against Alicante in Madrid on Wednesday. PHOTO: AFP

Real Madrid needed a late goal from Jose Maria "Guti" Gutierrez to beat Alicante 2-1 on Wednesday, sending them through to the fifth round of the Copa del Rey.

With the second-leg match at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium appearing to be headed for extra time, Guti's superbly aimed goal enabled Madrid to get past third-division Alicante on a 3-2 aggregate score.

At the Nou Camp, Santi Ezquerro scored twice and FC Barcelona survived for a 2-2 draw against second-division Alcoyano, advancing the Catalan side 5-2 on aggregate.

The matches were two of 14 Spanish cup matches on Wednesday that will all but complete the field for the round-of-16.

In Madrid, winger Arjen Robben gave Madrid the lead in the 31st minute, racing up the left wing to knock in Gonzalo Higuain's cross with his left foot.

Francisco Borja equalized for Alicante when he headed low past a diving Jerzy Dudek to score in the 65th minute.

Guti then won it in the third minute of injury time.

"You always need to play well for, and against, Real Madrid because it is such a big club, and Alicante tried very hard against us," Dudek said. "We are happy with the result if not with the way we played."

"We let them off the hook a bit, but we've advanced," Madrid manager Bernd Schuster said. "I don't think there's any discussion."

Ezquerro put Barcelona ahead 2-0 early, beating an offside trap to score in the second minute and converting again eight minutes later from a precisely placed pass from Bojan Krkic.

The lead was enough to withstand a 69th-minute penalty by Alcoyano's Jorge Perona and a last-minute goal by Carlos Arnau.

Sevilla also left it to the last minute to advance to the next round when they won 4-3 at home against Denia.

Goals by Luis Fabiano in the 15th minute and Argentine defender Federico Fazio in the 26th gave Sevilla a first-half lead. But three goals in 30 minutes from Jose Jaime, Gregory and Migue put Denia ahead until Sevilla surged back in front with a goal by Ernesto Chevanton in the 88th minute and a last-minute penalty by Frederic Kanoute to advance 5-4 on aggregate.

Manager Ronald Koeman received rare cheers from a Mestalla Stadium crowd as Valencia won 3-0 win over Real Union, advancing 5-1 on aggregate. Nikola Zigic scored in the 65th minute and Joaquin Sanchez added two more in the final 13 minutes.

Ikechukwu Uche scored a goal in each half for Getafe, but failed to convert a penalty for a third in a 4-1 win against Burgos.

Atletic Bilbao struggled until the 72nd minute before David Lopez scored at the San Mames Stadium, and Aritz Aduriz added a second in the 89th minute for a 2-0 victory over Hercules, sending Bilbao ahead with a 3-2 aggregate score.
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