Costa Blanca News: La Nucia’s Copa de Rey hopes shattered

KING’S CUP: La Nucia CF lost out to Merida. Photo credit: La Nucia town hall

LA NUCIA FC has been eliminated from the Copa del Rey (King’s Cup), Spain’s equivalent to the FA Cup.
The local team made a historic Copa del Rey debut, meeting Merida on December 19th in the qualifying round. They were 0-1 up when the match was suspended 37 minutes in, after gale-force winds threatened to topple a floodlight tower in the home team’s Estadio Romano.
Last week, on resuming the game they were forced to abandon before Christmas, the La Nucia players were 0-2 up at half-time but were finally eliminated on penalties after Merida drew level by the time the referee blew the full-time whistle. The match was a historic one for the team as this is its first season in the Segunda B league and the Merida away match was the first time that La Nucia has played in the Copa del Rey in almost 25 years of existence.
The luck of the draw, however, meant that they had to play away and then bad weather obliged them to make a double journey. As before, the match was not televised by any channel and local La Nucia supporters were unable to follow the match in a live transmission. Although the local team looked more comfortable in extra time, they missed two goal occasions and finally had to face a penalty shootout where Merida made fewer mistakes than La Nucia to win 3-2.
 

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Lisa Burgess

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