Atletico begin Cup defence with easy win

Atletico Madrid began their defence of the Copa del Rey with an comfortable 4-0 win away to third tier Sant Andreu on Saturday. Goals from Raul Garcia and David Villa either side of an Arda Turan double mean that Atletico can already start planning for the last 16 in January with the second-leg still to come at the Vicente Calderon in 10 days' time. The surroundings of the tiny Narcis Sala ground were a far cry from Atletico's previous Copa del Rey outing when they beat rivals Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu to claim their 10th title. However, the visitors still produced a polished display on an awkward artificial playing surface. Garcia continued his fine scoring form of late with the opener after just 12 minutes before Turan effectively ended the tie as a contest with a second away goal when he tapped home from Manquillo's intelligent cut-back just eight minutes later. The Turkish international doubled his tally for the afternoon 10 minutes after half-time as he took advantage of some frantic defending to slot home from inside the area. Atletico boss Diego Simeone had rested top scorer Diego Costa and David Villa from the start, but the Argentine showed no mercy on the lowly Catalans as he introduced his first choice striker partnership with 20 minutes to go. And Villa had time to grab his 10th goal of the season with classy finish six minutes from time to make it 4-0. Source: AFP