Mbappe excels as Real beat lowly 3rd-tier Talavera in Spanish Cup

A Kylian Mbappe brace helped Real Madrid avoid an upset at third-tier Talavera as Xabi Alonso’s side scraped home 3-2 to stamp their ticket into the Spanish Cup last 16 on Wednesday.

Talavera may be only 100km from the Spanish capital but their modest 6,000-capacity Estadio El Prado is a world away from Real’s Santiago Bernabeu fortress.

Yet Alonso’s 20-time Cup winners only narrowly avoided a potential banana skin.

Mbappe opened the scoring from the spot and Manu Farrando’s own goal in first-half injury time put the regal visitors in control at the break.

But Nahuel Arroyo’s 80th-minute goal for the modest hosts set up a nerve-tingling ending.

Mbappe fired in from outside the box with two minutes left on the clock only for Gonzalo Di Renzo to score in the first minute of injury time as Talavero went down fighting.

Elsewhere,Villarreal was eliminated by second-division club Racing Santander in the round of 32 of the Copa del Rey on Wednesday, while Atletico Madrid earned a hard-fought win over fourth-tier team Atletico Baleares.

Villarreal, sitting third in the Spanish league and enjoying one of its best campaigns in years, lost 2-1 to Racing after conceding twice in the first half. Ayoze Pérez scored in the 86th but Villarreal couldn’t complete the comeback. Juan Carlos Arana netted both goals for the hosts.

It was the second straight defeat for Villarreal in all competitions - it was coming off a 3-2 home loss to Copenhagen in the league phase of the Champions League. In the Spanish league, Villarreal has won six matches in a row.

Antoine Griezmann scored a goal in each half as Atletico held on for a 3-2 win over Atletico Baleares.

Atletico led 2-0 and 3-1, but the hosts kept threatening to the end. Baleares missed an 80th-minute penalty before pulling closer in the 90th. Giacomo Raspadori also scored for Atletico.

It was the third win in a row for Diego Simeone’s team in all competitions after it had lost two consecutive in the Spanish league, where it sits in fourth place behind Villarreal.

Earlier, Barcelona needed late goals by Andreas Christensen and Marcus Rashford to defeat third-division club Guadalajara 2-0 in the round of 32 of the Copa del Rey in a game delayed because of problems with the stadium’s temporary grandstand.

Kickoff was delayed by half an hour because local authorities did not initially allow fans access to the newly built grandstand at the Pedro Escartín stadium in the city of Guadalajara near Madrid.

There were long lines outside the stadium until police finally permitted fans inside. The stadium’s capacity increased from nearly 6,000 to about 8,000 with the new stand.

Barcelona was in control from the start but struggled to create significant scoring chances against its lower-tier opponent.

Christensen finally broke the deadlock in the 76th minute with a header off a cross by Frenkie De Jong. Christensen’s header deflected off a defender before hitting the net.

The hosts had a few opportunities to equalize but couldn’t capitalize, and Rashford sealed the victory on a breakaway in the 90th.

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick rested some of the team’s regular starters ahead of Spanish league leader’s visit to third-place Villarreal on Sunday.

Goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, who underwent back surgery in the offseason, was back in the starting lineup after 212 days.

Defender Pau Cubarsí, 18, made his 100th appearance with Barcelona. He made his first-team debut with the club in a Copa match in January 2024.

“These are tricky matches,” Cubarsí said. “They come out with full force, and we have to come out with the same intensity. They did a great job but we deserved it. We had more rhythm and more chances in the second half. As the time passed they started to get tired.”

In the upset of the night, second-division Deportivo La Coruna eliminated top-flight Mallorca 1-0.

The other first-division clubs advanced. Real Sociedad defeated Eldense 2-1 with a winner deep into stoppage time, while Valencia beat Sporting Gijon 2-0.

Agencies