Villa bags Barça brace

The vast majority of the return legs of the last 32 in the Copa del Rey were resolved earlier tonight. Las Palmas, Osasuna, Córdoba (Segunda División), Betis, Málaga and Real Madrid all qualified on Tuesday and will now be joined by Barcelona, Sevilla, Getafe, Levante, Valencia and Atlético de Madrid.
There are three remaining ties which will takes place on Thursday: Celta-Almería, Granada-Zaragoza and Mallorca-Deportivo de La Coruña.
Victory did not come easy for Barcelona at the Camp Nou against Alavés, who opened the scoring. Barça needed an inspired performance from David Villa to carry the team, which consisted of several reserve players. The Asturian bagged a brace in the second half after the team had bounced back to draw level before the break - a goal from Adriano cancelling out Borja Viguera’s effort. Barça go through 6-1 on aggregate, after a 3-0 win in Vitoria.
It was plain sailing for Atlético de Madrid against another team from the Segunda B, who 'Los Rojiblancos' had swept aside in the first leg by three goals to nil. Jaén put on a professional display, but Diego Simeone’s side – which also mainly consisted of reserve players – won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Raúl García in the first half.
After a 3-1 defeat in the first leg away to Sevilla, Espanyol lost 3-0 at home to the Andalusian outfit. Newly-appointment coach Javier Aguirre watched on and has a lot of rebuilding work to do to his squad.