Copa del Rey: The cup of setbacks for Villarreal | Copa del Rey 2019

With the elimination at the hands of the Mirands there are already eight times that Villarreal falls to the hands of an opponent of a lower category since serving in the First

The Villarreal and the Copa del Rey is a story of heartbreak in which disappointment accumulates after disappointment. The tournament in which, probably, clearer has the Castellón club the way to choose to inaugurate its palmars not only resists it but also is the scene of some of the biggest setbacks in its recent history. Because the elimination against the Mirands is not, by far, the first that suffers the yellow team against a rival of lower category, although in Anduva it will not really be reflected in the field.

The problem of Villarreal is that this type of stumbling blocks they have stopped becoming an exception. And it is that almost in half of its participations in the KO tournament as a team of First it has been alienated by a rival of Second or even of Second B. With that of this past Wednesday, there are already eight times when yellows have been eliminated by teams that were in lower categories. His other twelve eliminations were at the hands of rivals of his same category.

The elimination at the hands of the Mirands breaks, in addition, the stage of more stability of the Castellón people in the tournament because the last time they had fallen before a rival of lower category was, precisely, before that Mirands of Pablo Infante who threw them into the street in a double-play tie, the 2011-12 season, the one of the descent. Since then, Villarreal had managed to go further than ever the 2014-15 campaign, in which he reached the semifinals. From there he accumulated four consecutive eliminations in the round of 16, although always against First teams (Athletic, Real Sociedad, Legans and Espanyol) until this season he has returned to repeat in vices of the past.

The first time that Villarreal broke down in the Cup against an opponent of a lower category – since his promotion to First – was the 2000-01 season, when he was eliminated in sixteenths by a Pomegranate that militated at the time in Second B. It ended in a tie to one the match played in Los Crmenes and it was the Andalusians who imposed themselves in the penalty shootout (4-2). Two years later it was the Hercules, also of Second B, who eliminated Villarreal in thirty-second finals by beating him 2-1 in the Rico Prez. The story is repeated again a couple of years later, with the Girona (also of Second B and with the same marker) of protagonist.

The next disappointment will come in the 2006-07 season, eliminated this time in the round of 16 by a Valladolid that militated in Second to double game (the pucelanos won 2-1 in Jos Zorrilla and 0-1 in El Madrigal). It was, however, the 2008-09 season when Villarreal signed its biggest debacle in the Cup with that one-goal win in the field of 16 Poly Ejido (5-0), who was also unable to beat him on the lap (1-1). Only one year later, a new slip, before a Celtic that militated in Second and that appealed to the yellows in eighths winning in El Madrigal (0-1) after the tie of Balados (1-1).

The Mirands Villarreal has been the protagonist in the last two important trips in the Copa del Rey, without taking into account the elimination at the hands of Ponferradina (0-2 in El Madrigal) the course in which both teams agreed in Second.