Real Madrid knocked out neighbors and rivals Atlético with two goals scored in extra time by Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior (3-1) on Thursday night in the pinnacle match of the Spanish King's Cup quarter-finals .
Another qualifier of the day, Athletic Bilbao, which won 3-1 in Valencia and joined FC Barcelona and Osasuna in the semi-finals, qualified the day before.
The atmosphere was electric in Madrid, especially after the Vinicius Jr incident: a model wearing the jersey of the Brazilian striker Real was found hanging from a bridge in the Spanish capital before the derby.
A malevolent act which did not prevent the player from playing the entire match and even scoring his team's third and final goal in added time in extra time, after a splendid slalom in the defense of the red and white (120+2).
Atlético had however thrown a chill in the Santiago-Bernabeu by opening the scoring in the 19th minute through Alvaro Morata, just in time at the far post to take over a cross from Nahuel Molina.
Revenge of Vinicius
Stung to the quick, Carlo Ancelotti's team then struggled and created many goalscoring opportunities.
The liberating equalizer finally came in the 79th minute, thanks to a feat from Rodrygo.
The Brazilian, who entered the game ten minutes earlier in place of Federico Valverde, played with four defenders before deceiving Jan Oblak.
And in extra time, while the Montenegrin central defender Stefan Savic had been excluded for a foul on Eduardo Camavinga (2nd yellow card, 99th), Karim Benzema scored his second goal with a recovery close to the post (104th).
Then Vinicius went for it, for a nice revenge after the new attack he suffered.
At the Mestalla stadium in Valencia, Athletic Bilbao, 8th in La Liga, very logically won in Valencia (3-1), and even scored the opposing equalizing goal, by Oscar de Marcos against his camp (43rd).
Athletic opened the scoring in the 35th minute, on a recovery from Iker Muniain.
Two minutes after the equaliser, Nico Williams gave the advantage to the Basques with a shot under the bar (45th), then Mikel Vesga converted a whistled penalty after viewing the VAR for a foul by Swiss Eray Comert on Inaki Williams (74th).
The semi-finals will be played home and away.
The draw will be made on Monday.