With hardly any surprises, 56 teams, of the 112 that started the new edition of the Copa del Rey on Tuesday, have managed to reach the second round. This Friday, At 1:00 p.m., the draw for pairings will be held in the Luis Aragonés Room of the Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas. As happened in the first round, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic and Real Sociedad (participants in the Super Cup) will not be included in the drums and are exempt from participating.
In the first 56 games there was excitement, extra time and even a game that had to be played at dawn. But there were almost no surprises and the modest could not impose their law against the great. No First Division club has dropped out, which means that teams from regional and Third Division categories have fallen. Yes there were four teams that challenged to the Silver category. Portugalete, Córdoba, Las Rozas, Pontevedra and Amorebieta beat UD Logroñés, Mirandés, Cartagena Albacete and Ponferradina. There are still three games to be played because of COVID (Poblense-Olot. Haro-Linense and Zamora-SD Logroñés).
Rules and conditions of the draw
Of the 56 teams that will play this second round of the Copa del Rey, only 28 of them will be part of the 32 who will play the round of 32. The remaining four places are for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic and Real Sociedad (exempt from the first two rounds of the Cup as they are classified for the Spanish Super Cup). All of them will be divided into so many cups as categories have represented.
With this organization and as they establish the competition bases, the teams of lesser category must be paired with those of greater to the extent that it is possible and giving priority always to those of greater division.
Format of the second round
The second tie will take place on January 6, 2021. It will be played as a single match and will be played in the field of the lowest category team, as long as they meet the minimum requirements established by the RFEF for said facilities. In case of If teams of the same category face each other, the club whose ball was drawn first will act as local. There will be no VAR in these first rounds.
From this tie will come 28 teams that will go to the round of 32 of the Copa del Rey, whose round will take place on January 16 and 20, 2021. The four participating teams of the Spanish Super Cup (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic and Real Sociedad) will already be present in this tie.
What happens if you can't play because of COVID?
Faced with the threat of the pandemic, The Federation has added in its competition rules what to do and how to act in case COVID prevents playing a game to try to ensure the completion of the tournament. For the competition to be suspended, it should be the case that one or more heats (not counting the final) will not be played before June 30, when the end of the 20-21 season is set. In that case the title would be void. If only the final remained to be played (as happened in edition 19-20), would be disputed throughout the following campaign, as long as it is played before the next final.
But, in the event that one or more matches of a tie could not be played, either positive in some equipment or by the movement restriction measures of some geographical area in particular, it has established what to do. “If for any force majeure circumstance some matches of the tie could not be played and others, There will be continuity with the winning teams that have played it and with those teams that, having not been able to dispute them, the reason will not be related to the members of the same team or to the territory where the matches are played”, Says the RFEF in a statement. In other words, if team A is faced with team B and it cannot be played because team B has several positives or cannot move, A will go to the next round.
Participating teams
The Copa del Rey meets the 56 clubs qualified for the second round of the Copa del Rey. Still exempt the four teams that play the Spanish Super Cup in January 2021, and they will participate from sixteenths. In this way, the RFEF in the draw will divide all the teams into different cups, according to the category they are participating in. Unlike the previous draw, there will no longer be a cup for regional or third-party teams. All have been eliminated.
Exempt teams: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Real Sociedad and Athletic.
Cup distribution
First Division Cup. Huesca, Cádiz, Levante, Elche, Osasuna, Eibar, Atlético, Alavés, Valladolid, Getafe, Celta, Granada, Valencia, Villarreal, Betis and Seville.
Second Division Cup. Lugo, Tenerife, Leganés, Oviedo, Malaga, Alcorcón, Almería, Castellón, Sporting, Espanyol, Fuenlabrada, Zaragoza, Sabadell, Mallorca, Girona, Rayo and Las Palmas.
Second Cup B. Numancia, Burgos CF, Linares, Yeclano, Marbella, La Nucía, Cornellà, Deportivo, Navalcarnero, Mutilvera, Cultural, UD Ibiza, Peña Deportiva, Pontevedra, Alcoyano, Portugalete, Córdoba, Socuéllamos and Amorebieta.
The postponed remains to be played: Poblense-Olot. Haro-Linense and Zamora-SD Logroñés.
RFEF Cup. Las Rozas.
2020-21 Copa del Rey qualifying dates.
Second round: January 6, 2021
Sixteenth: January 16 and 20. The second date, for the participants of the Super Cup
Eighths: January 27, 2021
Rooms: February 3, 2021
Semifinals: the first leg is played on February 10 and the return, on March 3, 2021
Final: April 17, 2021. (Before the final of the Copa del Rey of the 19-20 edition will have to be played between Real Sociedad and Athletic postponed by COVID).