The 2013–14 Copa del Rey was the 112th staging of the Copa del Rey (including two seasons where two rival editions were played). The competition began on 4 September 2013 and ended on 16 April 2014 with the final. The final took place at Mestalla in Valencia, and saw Real Madrid defeat Barcelona 2–1 to win their 19th title in the competition. The winners assured a place for the group stage of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League, although Madrid qualified for the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League due to their league performance.
Atlético Madrid were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Real Madrid in the semi-finals, who avenged their 2013 final defeat.
Calendar and format
The next calendar was released by the RFEF on 8 August 2013 and the format was identical to the previous season.[1]
New entries: Clubs participating in Segunda División will gain entry. Byes: One team from the first round will receive a bye. Opponents seeding: Segunda División teams will face each other. Local team seeding: Luck of the draw. Knock-out tournament type: Single match
Byes: One team from Segunda División B or Tercera División, which previously didn't receive a bye, will receive one. Opponents seeding: Segunda División teams will face each other. Local team seeding: Luck of the draw. Knock-out tournament type: Single match
Round of 32
8 November 2013
6–8 December 2013
16
32 → 16
New entries: Clubs participating in La Liga will gain entry. Opponents seeding: The seven teams from La Liga which were qualified for 2013–14 UEFA competitions, will face against remaining seven teams from Segunda División B and Tercera División. The five remaining Segunda División teams will face against La Liga teams. The eight remaining La Liga teams will face each other. Local team seeding: First leg at home of team in lower division. Knock-out tournament type:Double match
17–19 December 2013
Round of 16
7–9 January 2014
8
16 → 8
Opponents seeding: Luck of the draw. Local team seeding: First leg at home of team in lower division. Knock-out tournament type: Double match
14–16 January 2014
Quarter-finals
21–23 January 2014
4
8 → 4
Opponents seeding: Luck of the draw. Local team seeding: Luck of the draw. Knock-out tournament type: Double match
Double-match rounds enforced away goals rule, single-match rounds did not.
Games ending in a tie were decided in extra time; and if it persisted, by a penalty shootout.
UEFA Europa League qualification:[4] if the Cup winner qualified for the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League, the Cup runner-up would qualify for the third qualifying round, then the 5th and 6th ranked teams in 2013–14 La Liga (always excluding no "UEFA license" and banned clubs) would qualify for group stage and play-off round respectively. However, if the Cup runners-up ended in Europa League places (5th or 6th), the 5th, 6th and 7th ranked teams in 2013–14 La Liga would qualify for group stage, play-off round and third qualifying round respectively. Similarly, if both finalists qualified for the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League, the 5th, 6th and 7th ranked teams in 2013–14 La Liga would also qualify for the group stage, play-off round and third qualifying round respectively.
Qualified teams
The following teams compete in the Copa del Rey 2013–14.[1]
35 teams of 2013–14 Segunda División B. Teams that qualified are the top five teams of each of the 4 groups (excluding reserve teams), the five with the highest number of points out of the remaining non-reserve teams (*), and the eleven teams winners of a group of 2012–13 Tercera División that were also promoted to Segunda División B:
8 teams of 2013–14 Tercera División. Teams that qualified are 7 of 18 champions that were not promoted to Segunda División B (or at least the ones with the highest number of points within their group since reserve teams are excluded), and Xerez that was relegated from Segunda División:
The draw was held on 13 September 2013 at 13:00 CEST in La Ciudad del Fútbol.[3] In the draw, one team from 2013–14 Segunda División B or 2013–14 Tercera División, winner from Second round, which previously didn't receive a bye, received one. Teams from Segunda División faced each other. Remaining winners of Second round and the team which received a bye faced each other. The matches were played on 16 and 17 October 2013.
The draw for the Round of 32 was held on 8 November 2013, in La Ciudad del Fútbol. In this round, all La Liga teams gained entry in the competition.
Round of 32 pairings were as follows: the seven remaining teams participating in Segunda División B and Tercera División faced the La Liga teams which qualified for European competitions, this is: four teams from Pot 1 (Segunda B and Tercera) were drawn against four teams from pot 2a (champions) and the three remaining teams in pot 1 were drawn in the same way with the pot 2b teams (Europa League). The five teams in Pot 3 (Segunda División) were drawn against five teams of the thirteen remaining teams of La Liga (Pot 4). The remaining eight teams of La Liga faced each other. Matches involving teams with different league tiers were played at home on the first leg the team in lower tier.[1] This rule was also applied in Round of 16, but not for the Quarter-finals and Semi-finals, in which the order of legs was pure as of the order of draw.
Note: Match suspended in 1st minute at 0-0 due to Racing Santander's refusal to play in a dispute over unpaid wages and demand that the club's board and president resign.
