Copa del Rey Draw—It’s Mirandés

The Copa del Rey draw was made and Villarreal got the draw they didn’t really want—a trip to Anduva to face Mirandés.

The rest of the draw:

Real Madrid—Real Sociedad

Athletic Club—Barcelona

Granada—Valencia

Mirandes is tough for two reasons: first, this is around where it would have been nice to have drawn one of the biggies at the Ceramica. Barcelona, for example—you have to beat them to win the cup anyway, so your best chance is now, not in the semis over two legs. Athletic Club have to feel pretty good about their chances.

Second, of course, is the history—Villarreal played here in the 2011-12 Copa and drew 1-1. That was the first leg, of course, and after we lost 2-0 at home in the second leg in an abject performance, coach Garrido was gone.

It has to be said though that the following season we joined Mirandés in the Segunda, and we won 5-1 at Anduva. Gerard and Mario were in the starting lineup that day. So maybe we could repeat that result and get to the semis for only the second time in our history, OK?

Here are the highlights from that one—you can spot a very young Gerard, a beardless Mario, etc. I had forgotten how many chances Jeremy Perbet missed that day in addition to his two goals!

Good news—Gerard returned to training today, btw.