With Riazor fired up, a young and debutant, Noé Carrillo (18), gave Deportivo a pass to the knockout stages of the Copa del Rey with an opportunistic goal in the final stretch of the match that ended with Mallorca. Jagoba Arrasate’s team was the first First Division team eliminated in these round of 16 by another lower category team. Depor struggled in the first half, with clear chances missed by Japan’s Asano on behalf of Mallorca. In the second act, Antonio Hidalgo’s team grew and began to believe in the possibility of eliminating Mallorca as the minutes passed and the scoreboard did not move. With the entry of Noé Carrillo and another youngster, Bil Nsongo (21), Depor took a step forward. The Cameroonian striker, 10 goals in 15 games with Fabril’s reserve team (Segunda RFEF), already made his debut last week during the 32nd round of the Cup against Sabadell. His header against the post was collected by Noé Carrillo to push the ball into an empty goal and advance Depor to the last 16 of the Cup 15 years later.
“I’m a little nervous,” Deportivo’s hero of the Copa night almost stammered, “but hey, I would like to thank the coach for giving me the opportunity to play these minutes.” Deportivo’s young squad explained their feelings since arriving on the Riazor pitch. “I came in, I tried to give everything, I had the chance to score the goal, it became a little quiet, I couldn’t hear the stadium or anything, and I approached the stands, I remembered my parents, my grandparents and, above all, my mother, who could not come to the stadium. On how the goal exploded Riazor, he said: “It’s a play from the wing, Luismi, Bil (Nsongo) puts in a cross, because he is strong and it goes well up front, I followed the play to see what happens. At first I thought it might have been Bil’s goal, but I was lucky he fell on me and I scored into an empty net.
For Mallorca’s Arrasate, it was an unexpected blow in a rather patchy league campaign. The Basque coach thought his team would have a good Cup, but the lack of play in the second half prevented him from doing so. “I’m screwed because I was very excited, I think we did things well, but I leave very annoyed with the management of the changes and not being able to do other things that we wanted,” lamented the Mallorca coach.
In Elda, Real Sociedad, with interim Ansotegi on the bench, got rid of Eldense with great difficulty thanks to a goal from Pablo Marín in the last minute of stoppage time which broke the tie 1-1. While waiting for the announcement of the new coach, the San Sebastian team showed bad symptoms. It was difficult for them to get back into the match and only a mistake on the ball from Eldense allowed them to take the lead on the scoreboard with a goal from Sucic ten minutes from time. The low hours of txuri urdin The speed with which the home team equalized betrayed them. In two minutes, Nacho Quintana put the ball into Unai Marrero’s corner. A few seconds before, he had already managed to equalize with a right foot outside the area which hit the crossbar. The team led by Claudio Barragán was doing better, but a good filtered pass from Guedes allowed Pablo Marín to lift Real.
In Gijón, Valencia beat Sporting with two goals at the start of each half. Argentina’s Lucas Beltrán scored before the end of the first five minutes of play. Sporting reacted well to the goal conceded and had chances to equalize. From the start of the restart, Raba, after a release and great control, scored the second goal which ended the tie. In Ipurua, Elche replaced Eibar thanks to a goal from Adam El Mokhtari.
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