Article by Tudor Belivacă – Published Tuesday, 06 January 2026 23:07 / Updated Tuesday, 06 January 2026 23:12
Rayo Vallecano completed the round of 16 in the Copa del Rey. The team from Madrid prevailed 3-1 away at Granada, even though they played mainly with the reserves. Although Inigo Perez opted for the second set, Andrei Rațiu was integralist.
Rayo had a very poor first half and found themselves in the lead after Pablo Esquerdas gave the hosts, who play in La Liga 2, the lead. Right at the start of the second half, Alvaro Garcia equalized, and in the 74th minute, after a pass from him, Pedro Diaz scored the second goal for the Madrid team. In the 90+2 minute Juanjo scored the own goal that established the final score. Ratiu was involved in the phase.
Andrei Rațiu, integral in Rayo Vallecano's match with Granada in the King's Cup: what the Iberian press writes
Rațiu played the whole match with Granada and received a yellow card in the 30th minute of the match. The press from Spain reported that Rațiu performed well in the first half, but missed the “last passes”: “Rayo, until the break, barely seemed to feel the blow: it neither stimulated nor shook them. Rațiu led the most promising attacks. The Romanian did everything right until the decisive pass: then he made the worst possible decision. And that's how the first half ended”, the Spanish journalists noted from AS.
Rațiu was involved in the last goal of the game. In the 90th+2nd minute, Andrei Rațiu escaped on the counterattack, dribbled past a defender and the goalkeeper, but before he could shoot, Juanjo intervened and sent the ball into his own goal.
Qualified teams in the round of 16 of the King's Cup: Alaves, Albacete, Rayo Vallecano, Osasuna, Valencia, Racing Santander, Deportivo La Coruna, Elche, Cultural Leonesa, Burgos, Real Sociedad, Betis, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao
