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Reuters

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Reuters

MADRID (Reuters) – Antoine Griezmann scored twice off the bench as Atletico Madrid sealed a place in the King’s Cup quarter-finals with a 3-0 win at home to Rayo Vallecano on Thursday while Valencia also advanced with victory by the same scoreline at Granada.

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Atletico and Valencia join holders and record winners Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, Sevilla, Celta Vigo, Las Palmas and second-division Mirandes, the only non-La Liga side left in the competition, in Friday’s draw for the last eight.

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Rayo held their more illustrious city neighbours to a 1-1 draw in last week’s last 16, first leg at their Vallecas stadium and were sniffing a possible upset ahead of the return across town at Atletico’s Calderon arena.

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Reuters

Angel Correa’s powerful strike from the edge of the penalty area, which flew in off the underside of the crossbar, put the 2013 winners ahead five minutes before halftime.

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Griezmann hooked in a second for the home side in the 80th minute and the in-form France forward made it 3-0 in added time with a breakaway goal for a 4-1 aggregate victory.

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Rayo, who are second from bottom in La Liga at the halfway stage, barely troubled Miguel Angel Moya in the Atletico goal and must now turn their attention to avoiding relegation.

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Valencia coach Gary Neville rested several regulars for the visit to Granada after a thumping 4-0 victory in the first leg at the Mestalla.

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Granada, also struggling in La Liga, had the better of the early exchanges and Ruben Rochina’s first-time shot came back off the inside of a post in the 21st minute.

However, midfielder Wilfried Zahibo made the most of an error by goalkeeper Ivan Kelava and headed in at a corner in the 42nd minute to snuff out any hopes of an unlikely Granada comeback.

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Paco Alcacer sped clear to score in the 63rd minute moments after coming on to replace Alvaro Negredo and Pablo Piatti completed the scoring and a 7-0 aggregate success with a penalty six minutes from time.

“Granada were excellent in the opening minutes,” Neville, who took over from the sacked Nuno Espirito Santo last month, told a news conference.

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“But as the game went on I think we were the better team,” added the former Manchester United and England defender.

The quarter-finals will be played over two legs later this month, with the semi-finals at the start of February and the final on May 21.

(Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Toby Davis)

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is EssentiallySports’ foremost authority on motorsport and a founding member of the outlet’s NASCAR desk. A Journalism graduate fluent in English and French, he brings over eight years of motorsports journalism experience covering everything from high-octane NASCAR battles to the finesse of Formula 1 and MotoGP. His extensive paddock access has earned him exclusive interviews with top names such as Know more

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