The Domestic Cups Runneth Over(eth)

By: chris | March 5th, 2009

The Champions League gets the pub and the UEFA Cup the scraps, but domestic cup competitions, often seen as mere afterthoughts, provide some of the best action around. Big clubs send out watered down teams and little clubs send out eleven of their finest playing as though it’s a Champions League final – mostly because it is their Champions League final. Wednesday was a massive day in that department, so here’s a rundown of the unloved competitions.

Spanish Copa del Rey

Athletic 3 – Sevilla 0

i. Firstly, and most importantly, Fernando Llorente officially has the best hair in Spanish football. It’s like slightly permed cotton candy.

ii. Athletic Bilbao hadn’t made a Copa final in 24 years. End streak.

With 3 goals in the first half against Sevilla, the Basque club have been afforded the opportunity to either tie or beat Barcelona’s record cup haul of 24. The “or” is inserted because the league didn’t want to include merged clubs and Athletic think they’ve won 24 while LFP award them 23. So yes, this final should be controversy free.

Mallorca 1 – Barca 1

i. Martin Caceras learned that sliding in on someone from behind in the penalty area is not a smart idea.

ii. Josemi was red carded as he was being carted off the field. That’s just heartless.

Italian Coppa Italia

Sampdoria 3 – Inter 0

After stopping the unstoppable force, Manchester United, during midweek Champions League action, Inter have managed to concede six goals – all from open play – in two games.

Sampdoria’s 3-0 win puts them nine toes deep in the Coppa Italia final, which is a minor miracle given how much they’ve sucked arse this year (love the roster, but somehow the output just doesn’t match up). Also, Giampaolo Pazzini has Azzurri fans the world over panting like preteens at a strip club.

French Coupe de France

So picture this: you’re one of the few hot topics in France at the moment and after narrowly escaping what would be a historically embarrassing relegation last year, you may have a shot at the title. Then a cup tie against a third tier team sitting six points from the drop zone shows up. Gimme, right? Wrong.

Cup upset of the year thus far: Unheralded unknowns Rodez stun PSG with two goals in extra time to advance, 3-1. Expect a (Euro)Disney movie soon.

* – And we won’t name names, but this stunner came just hours after a few Offside Power Poll submissions arrived with some generous PSG votes. Oops.

Lille 3 – Lyon 2

Perhaps the biggest French fixture on the docket, Lille v Lyon, didn’t disappoint either, with another extra time goal, this one via Nicolas Fauvergue. The YouTubes are, at the time of these writings, acting rudely uncompliant, so we’ll just imagine it was Frenchly fantastic and full of drama and all that good stuff.

Dutch KNVB Cup

Twente 1 – De Graafschap 0

Breaking: Steve McClaren has finally managed to advance in a cup competition!

Alright, this was Twente’s third KNVB win, but that’s no excuse not to use that line.

Continuing with the anti-anti-drama theme, another injury time goal sent Twente through to the next round for a real chance at some trophy love this season.

German DFB Pokal

The Bundesliga never disappoints: 3 games, 16 goals.

Bayer 4 – Bayern 2

If not for that utter trouncing of Sporting in Portugal, you’d have to think morale in the Munchen locker room would be pretty low. After that impressive unbeaten streak and subsequent rise up the table, they’ve gone all Luca Toni at Euro 2008 and won only once in their last six games on German soil. Perhaps they could move the Allianz Arena to Lisbon?

Oh, and Bayer Leverkusen are good. Real good.

Wolfsburg 2 – Werder Bremen 5

After a weekend win against HSV there seemed to be a universal sense that Wolfsburg weren’t out of the title race just yet. Problem is, when you run up against Werder Bremen on a good (manic) day, even the best teams look more relegation contender than title hopefuls.

HSV 2 – Wehen 1

Considering Wehen sit dead last in 2. Bundesliga and HSV sit second in the real Bundesliga, this could probably be chalked up as a Wehen win.

But that’s still Martin Jol 1,792 – Tottenham -1.

Turkish Cup

Fenerbahce 3 – Sivasspor 1

Bilica scored the lone goal for Sivasspor, but it was so fantastic it’s worth at least four goals. The only thing which stopped it from rising out of the stadium was the roof of the net, thus I award advancement to Sivasspor. Yes, I can do that.

For the best of the rest in Europe, check out uefa’s coverage.