Valencia and Villarreal Skip First Round of Copa del Rey

JAKARTA - Valencia and Villarreal, two Spanish La Liga clubs, advanced smoothly to the second round of the Copa del Rey. In the first round, Friday, November 3, WIB, they eliminated their opponents from the lower divisions.

Valencia, who is currently ranked ninth in La Liga, was 'embarrassed' because they had to work hard against Logrones, a team from Segunda B Group 2 which is Division Four in the Spanish competition level.

In the duel at the Nuevo Municipal Las Gaunas Stadium, Valencia fielded young players or those who had been sitting on the bench. Young defender Cristhian Mosquera, who has actually become a pillar of Los Che, is still played by coach Ruben Baraja.

Mosquera along with Selim Amallah are the core players retained by Baraja. Meanwhile, the other players are generally young, such as Yarek Gasiorowski (18) and Hugo Gonzalez (19).

Even though they play in the lower division, Logrones was able to trouble Valencia. In the first half, Valencia had to work hard against the hosts' defense which was quite strong.

Valencia was finally able to break into Logrones' goal towards the end of the first half. Pablo Gozalbez scored a goal in the 45+1 minute which put Valencia 1-0 up.

Meanwhile, the second goal from the team that has won the Copa del Rey eight times was scored by forward Diego Lopez in the 88th minute.

Gozalbez played a role in the process of creating this goal. From his assist, this 21-year-old striker successfully scored a goal. Score 2-0 for Valencia ended the match.

Meanwhile, Villarreal won 5-0 over amateur club Chiclana. In that match, Villarreal, who acted as the visiting team, also fielded reserve players.

Even though he faced opponents with his B team, Chiclana still didn't move at all.

Veteran midfielder Manu Trigueros opened the scoring party for The Yellow Submarine in the 19th minute. Next, 21-year-old striker Jorge Pascual increased the visitors' lead in the 31st minute.

Trigueros scored the second goal towards the end of the first half. Score 3-0 for Villarreal closed the first half.

In the second half, Villarreal added two more goals. This time Trigueros scored a hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 72nd minute.

Only two minutes later, midfielder Alex Baena established the lead to 5-0. That score lasted until the end of the match.