Madrid: Real Madrid crashed out of the Spanish King's Cup against third-division part-timers Alcorcon.
Real won the second leg 1-0, but go out on an emphatic 4-1 aggregate result because they astonishingly lost 4-0 in Alcorcon, an industrial suburb to the south of Madrid, in the first leg two weeks ago.
Real captain Raul on Tuesday sportingly congratulated the Alcorcon players and said that "they deserve this ... we have not played well, in either game".
Coach Manuel Pellegrini rested only Iker Casillas, Marcelo, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema for the match, which attracted almost 70,000 fans to the Estadio Bernabeu, most of who were hoping for a Real comeback.
Kaka and company were jeered off at half time after a sluggish start. They improved slightly after the interval but did not score until eight minutes from time, when Rafael Van der Vaart scored with a left-foot drive.
Three minutes later Gonzalo Higuain hit the Alcorcon crossbar, but time was running out fast for the most expensive team in history.
Alcorcon left the field to well-deserved applause, Real to jeers and boos.
Real have not won the King's Cup since 1993. Last season they were eliminated by third-division Union Irun, a setback that contributed to coach Bernd Schuster losing his job.
The only good news for the whites Tuesday was that Cristiano Ronaldo was allowed to return to Madrid by the Portuguese football federation, after doctors confirmed the badly sprained right ankle that has kept him out of action for a month now.
To Real's relief, he will miss next week's World Cup play-offs between Portugal and Bosnia.
Real are desperate for Ronaldo to be fit for the Nov 29 "clasico" against league leaders Barcelona.
Barca are at home to third-division Cultural Leonesa later Tuesday in the cup. The match should be a formality, given that Barca won the away leg 2-0 on two goals from the promising Pedro Rodriguez.
Earlier on Tuesday, Valencia scraped through against third-division Alcoyano, on a 3-2 aggregate, while Sevilla thrashed Atletico Ciudad 9-3 overall, and Atletico Madrid beat Marbella on an 8-0 aggregate.
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