Atletico Madrid suffer shock Copa del Rey defeat to third tier Cornella

Atletico Madrid were the victims of a major giant killing on Wednesday evening after crashing out in the second round of the Copa del Rey to third tier side Union Esportiva Cornella.

Diego Simeone's side suffered a 1-0 defeat to the Segunda Division B outfit at Camp Municipal de Cornella - Cornella's 1,500 seater stadium.

Atletico made eight changes to the side who beat Alaves 2-1 in La Liga on Sunday, with only Jose Gimenez, Felipe and Angel Correa starting both games.

Their understrength XI fell behind inside seven minutes, Adrian Jimenez giving the hosts the lead with a fabulous flick for his first goal of the season.

Saul Niguez came closest to levelling the scores for Simeone's side when he rattled the cross bar, but Atletico were reduced to 10 men just after the hour mark as Ricard Sanchez Sendra saw red for two bookable offences in the space 11 second half minutes as Cornella recorded a famous victory.

Atletico - 10 time winners of the competition, most recently in 2013 - have not exited at such an early stage since the 2001/02 season, when they lost 3-1 to Rayo Vallecano in the first round.

However, this is the second successive season in which they have been dumped out by lower league opposition, after losing 2-1 to Cultural Leonesa in the round of 32 of the 2019/20 competition.

Simeone's side are the current La Liga leaders, leading rivals Real Madrid by two points and with two games in hand.

Cornella meanwhile currently sit seventh in Group 3 Group A of the Spanish third tier, having won just three league matches thus far this campaign. The Catalan side have only been playing in the Segunda Division B since 2014, and this is just the third time in their history that they have made it past the second round in the Copa del Rey.

Cornella's reached the Copa del Rey last 32 during the 2014/15 season - the furthest the club have ever gone in the competition.