Real Madrid face Copa del Rey elimination despite 3-1 win

Cheryshev celebrates scoring Real Madrid’s opener in Wednesday’s Copa del Rey fixture

In what could be a major embarrassment, Spanish giants Real Madrid are in danger of being kicked out of the Copa del Rey for fielding an ineligible player in their squad in last night’s 3-1 win over third tier team Cadiz at the Ramón de Carranza.

The player in question is 24-year-old Denis Cheryshev. The Russian International who started for Real Madrid in their fourth round encounter over the minnows had a one-game ban hanging over his head. Incidentally, he had picked up the suspension for three yellow cards he received in last season’s Copa del Rey campaign when he was away on loan at fellow Liga club Villareal.

How this particular piece of information escaped the attention of the club is simply astonishing!

Ironically, Cheryshev opened the scoring for Los Blancos as manager Rafael Benitez fielded a second string side against the lowly opposition. He rifled in a left-footed shot after an excellent assist from Columbian James Rodriguez. But much to the horror of Benitez, he had to withdraw the Russian at half-time after the home fans had jeered him on his blunder with chants of “Benítez, look at your Twitter,” and “Cheryshev can’t play” for most of the first half.

“We had no idea that Cheryshev was ineligible to play,” said the manager after the game.

“No one informed us of this situation. As soon as we were aware we took him off.”

Additionally, they also had teenager Borja Mayoral on the bench who was also ineligible due to a red card he had acquired in the final of Copa del Rey Juvenil last season. However, Mayoral did not make an appearance for his side last night.

There have been reports claiming Real Madrid ignored a fax sent prior to the match by sports analyst warning the club of the situation of Denis Cheryshev.

Los Merengues won the tie 3-1 with Isco bagging the other two goals for the 19-time Copa del Rey winners before Kike Marquez grabbed a late goal to pull one back for the hosts.

Cadiz to report incident to Spanish Football Federation

Cadiz had to report the infringement by Real Madrid to the Spanish Football Federation by Thursday for any action to be initiated. And during the match the club’s twitter feed Cadiz-CF read “The Board of Directors of Cadiz-CF will meet at the end of the match”.

However, it has been confirmed that the club have reported the incident to the Federation and it is highly likely that Real Madrid will be dumped out of the tournament.

Last season Osasuna were kicked out of the tournament for playing an ineligible player as Unai García was selected in the win over Mirandes despite being sent off the previous year.

Adding to the embarrassment of the Benitez, this wasn’t the first instance when a team led by the Spaniard had been disqualified for having fielded ineligible players in Spain. During his time as manager of Valencia, they were disqualified from the Copa del Rey having played too many non-EU players during a tie against Novelda in 2001.