Copa del Rey: Atlético 1-0 Real Jaén

Atlético Madrid reached the round of 16 of the 2012-13 Copa del Rey with a 4-0 aggregate win over Real Jaén. The tie had effectively been settled a fortnight earlier by a 3-0 away win; the return at the Vicente Calderón added a single goal and no alarms. Getafe, who had beaten Ponferradina 4-0 across their own two legs, were confirmed as the next opponents for 12 December.

With a league meeting against Real Madrid to come that Saturday, Diego Simeone again used the cup to rest his first-choice players. The makeshift defence looked short of understanding in the opening exchanges, but the tie was beyond doubt and Atlético were never troubled.

The goal came after fifteen minutes. Raúl García collected the ball, drove it towards the far corner and left goalkeeper Manu with no chance. It was his seventh of the campaign, a total that made him the club’s leading scorer that season behind Radamel Falcao, a return from a midfielder who seemed to appear in every match at some stage.

With the tie decided and the derby in mind, the pace dropped. Jaén’s only moments of danger came from set pieces, all of them taken by Emre Belözoğlu, and at the other end Sergio Asenjo produced one fine save to preserve a fifth consecutive clean sheet. The win also extended a record of eleven straight home victories that season, a run in which no points had been dropped at the Calderón.

The evening’s other story was the youth presence. Javi Manquillo started, Óliver Torres and Saúl Ñíguez came off the bench, and all three were graduates of the club’s academy who would go on to first-team careers. Less welcome was the sight of Cristian “Cebolla” Rodríguez pulling up a few minutes from the end with what looked like a hamstring problem; he was replaced by Saúl and left as a doubt for the derbies ahead.

That season ended with the Copa del Rey itself, won against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu the following May. The run is covered in the Copa del Rey pages, the rivalry in the Madrid derby section, and more reports from the same months in the archive.