Real Betis Balompie on Thursday began the defense of their Copa del Rey title with a 4-1 win against fourth-division UD Ibiza in a round-of-32 match played in front of only a few thousand fans at a practice pitch in the Balearic Islands.
The hosts surprisingly opened the scoring through Pepe Bernal in the 26th minute, but Betis rallied in the second half with goals from Willian Jose, Edgar Gonzalez, Nabil Fekir and an own-goal by Iker Murua before a crowd of fewer than 2,000 fans.
“We kept our calm despite going down a goal,” said Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini, who spoke from a cafeteria after the game because there was no news conference room at the site.
“These are always complicated matches,” he said.
The game was played in what is used mostly as a practice facility because Ibiza could not reach an agreement with local officials to host it at the bigger Estadi Municipal de Can Misses.
“It was strange that an attractive match like this wasn’t played at the bigger stadium,” Pellegrini said.
“It would have been a better spectacle, with more fans, and I wouldn’t have to speak to you from a cafeteria,” he said.
Betis, who last season won their fifth Copa title, were among the four teams entering the competition in this round because they are playing in the Spanish Supercopa that begins next week, along with Valencia, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Valencia were runners-up to Betis in last year’s final. All four teams advanced to the round-of-16.
In other results, Athletic Bilbao — 23-time Copa winners, second only to Barcelona’s 31 titles — routed third-division CD Eldense 6-1, with Nico Williams, Alejandro Berenguer and Iker Muniain among the scorers for the Basque Country team.
The other top-tier club to advance was CA Osasuna, though they needed extra-time to defeat third-division Gimnastic de Tarragona 2-1 after a 1-1 draw in regulation.
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