Why are Barcelona and Real Madrid not playing in the second ...

The Copa del Rey is back this week and we’ve reached the second round stage of the 2024-25 competition. Matches gets underway on Tuesday, with 28 second round games set to be played between Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

However, attentive Spanish football fans will notice that a handful of high profile teams are absent from the second round games with Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Athletic Club and Real Mallorca all missing out from the opening stage and this round.

These four sides all get a bye as they are the four representatives of the Spanish Super Cup which will be staged in Jeddah next January (2025).

Real Madrid and Barça are the league representatives as winners and runners-up from the 23-24 season with Athletic Club and Real Mallorca the Copa del Rey winners and beaten finalists last season.

Most of the other LaLiga big guns, including Atletico Madrid, Real Betis, Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Villarreal are in action in the cup this midweek with Real Madrid and Barcelona (along with Athletic and Mallorca) given a bye straight through to the third round of the competition which takes place in early January (2025).

Since the 2019-20 season, all Copa del Rey ties are now been decided in one-off matches, with the exception of the semi-finals, which are played over two legs.

With teams in the lower divisions always playing at home, there has been lots of potential for cup shocks and the potential ‘banana skins’ this week include Ejea-Valencia, Olot-Sevilla, Unionistas-Rayo, Orihuela-Getafe and Cacereño-Atlético Madrid.

All four Super Cup sides are however involved in midweek rescheduled league action as Barça head to Mallorca on Tuesday and Ancelotti’s men travelling to San Mames to face Athletic on Wednesday.

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