Copa del Rey semifinalists: Villarreal, Barcelona, Athletic Club, Espanyol

Villarreal defeated Getafe 1-0 (2-0 on aggregate) to move into the semifinals for the first time in their history.  Their reward is a two-legged tie versus Barcelona.

It was not pretty, but Villarreal won't care too much.  Asenjo had to make a key save from Hinestroza early, and the same player grazed the bar with a rather speculative second half shot, while Villarreal had a good chance from Trigueros (blocked) and Gerard had a chance cleared away--Getafe should have conceded a penalty for what looked like a handball, but the referee waved play on.   Joel Campbell played an hour in his Submarine debut; he looked lively but not surprisingly found it hard to link up with players he'd barely practiced with.

Ultimately Gerard's 78th-minute goal, assisted by Cheryshev after a neat short pass from Moi, meant Getafe would be out unless they scored three goals in the remaining time, and this failed to happen.

In the other ties, Sevilla went down to Espanyol; they needed a 2-0 win, and 1-0 was all they got.  Athletic Bilbao defeated Malaga by the same score, but this was good enough for them to progress.

The Bilbao-Espanyol semi will be noteworthy because neither of those teams look likely to qualify in the top six places for Europe, while winning the Cup will put them in the Europa League qualifying.   Villarreal and Barca are of course in the top six right now, but getting to a cup final would be a new thing for the Submarine.