Real Madrid face being thrown out of this season’s Copa del Rey after reportedly fielding an ineligible player in the first leg of their fourth-round tie against Cadiz on Wednesday.
Russia international Denis Cheryshev opened the scoring in Andalusia, but should not have been on the pitch as he was due to serve a one-game ban in the competition after picking up three yellow cards while on loan at Villarreal last season.
Cheryshev was replaced a minute into the second half by Mateo Kovacic.
Photo: EPA
“Clearly we didn’t know. Villarreal and the federation hadn’t warned us,” Real Madrid boss Rafael Benitez said. “When we knew we substituted him to show good faith.”
Isco scored twice after the break, before Cristian Marquez’s late consolation rounded off the scoring in a 3-1 Real Madrid win.
However, the result could yet prove meaningless if Madrid are proved to have fallen foul of the competition’s rules, with Cadiz president Manolo Vizcaino confirming his club would launch a formal complaint.
“We have decided to report the ineligible lineup,” Vizcaino said. “It hurts us to do so with a friendly club, but the decision taken has been firm and unanimous.”
Real Madrid director of institutional relations Emilio Butragueno also blamed the Spanish Football Federation and Villarreal for not informing Madrid of the ban.
“We didn’t know about the situation, we didn’t receive any notification from the federation nor Villlarreal,” Butragueno told Canal Plus. “I also want to say that Cheryshev himself didn’t know of any possible ban.”
Second-division side CA Osasuna were thrown out of the Copa earlier this season for fielding an ineligible player in their second-round tie against CD Mirandes.
The error is the latest blow for Real Madrid after a disastrous couple of weeks that has seen the 10-time European champions fall six points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona after being hammered 4-0 at home by their archrivals.
It is also not the first time Real Madrid have been caught out by an administrative problem this season after the signing of Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea fell through as the clubs missed the deadline for the paperwork to be filed.
Barca’s fine form continued as Sandro Ramirez scored a hat-trick as the Catalans swept aside third-tier Villanovense 6-1 to book their place in the round-of-16.
Luis Enrique left Lionel Messi out of his 16-man squad, while Neymar and Luis Suarez remained on the bench as Barca’s mix of youngsters and veterans proved way too strong for Villanovense after they had held out bravely for a 0-0 draw in the first leg.
Dani Alves’ dipping long-range effort which took Villanovense goalkeeper Jose Antonio Fuentes by surprise opened the floodgates after just four minutes.
Ramirez then ended his 12-month wait for a goal with the Barca senior side as he slammed into the roof of the net after capitalizing on a fluffed clearance by Fuentes.
Juanfran gave the visitors a moment to savor just before the half-hour mark when he fired into the top corner of Jordi Masip’s goal to reduce the deficit to a single goal.
However, Ramirez eased any Barca nerves two minutes later with a cool finish from Aitor Cantalapiedra’s pass.
Both Ramirez and Munir El Haddadi failed to score in the two months that they shared deputizing for Messi while the Argentine was sidelined by a knee ligament injury, but against weaker opposition they showed their potential as El Haddadi headed home Jeremy Mathieu’s cross to make it 4-1.
Ramirez swept home from close range to complete his hat-trick 21 minutes from time and then teed up El Haddadi with a lovely back-heel to round off the scoring seven minutes later.
Valencia, who announced the appointment of Gary Neville as coach earlier on Wednesday, came from behind to beat Barakaldo 3-1 in the first leg of their fourth-round tie.
Gary’s brother Phil was part of the caretaker coaching staff in the Basque country as goals from Joao Cancelo, Jose Luis Gaya and Dani Parejo put Los Che well on course for the round-of-16.
Also on Wedensday, Sevilla cruised to a 3-0 win at UD Logrones, Real Betis Balompie downed Real Sporting de Gijon 2-0, Rayo Vallecano de Madrid beat Getafe 2-0, RC Celta de Vigo won 3-1 away at UD Almeria and RC Deportivo de La Coruna edged UE Llagostera 2-1.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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