Madrid End 18-year Copa del Rey Trophy Drought, Only for Ramos to Drop the Trophy under the Bus

On June 26, 1993 at the Estadio Luis Casanova -Mestalla in Valencia, Real Madrid lifted their 17^th Copa del Rey trophy after beating Real Zaragoza 2-0 in the final, thanks to goals from Emilio Butragueño and leftback Mikel Lasa Goikoetxea.

It was the last Copa del Rey, also known as Spanish Cup, trophy that Real Madrid won before their triumph last night against Barcelona which brought to an end an 18-year long wait for the cup.

Cristiano Ronaldo headed the only goal of the game (and his second against Barca in the last two games) in the first half of extra time after the teams had finished the 90minutes of the game in a stalemate in front of 55,000 fans. Madrid Captain Iker Casillas had to endure a barrage of attacks from the Blaugrana side and was forced to make some several stunning saves in the last 15 minutes of added time to deny Pep Guardiola and his team an equalizing goal that might have given them a chance of winning their 26^th Spanish Cup.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia handed Casillas the trophy and the caravan of winners soon set off to rain-soaked Madrid to meet and greet jubilant fans.

It was along the streets of the beautiful and grand Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid where Sergio Ramos, aboard an open-top bus, took hold of the Copa del Rey trophy, held it high above his head as the bus moved graciously and then... Dropped it! The trophy crashed under the front bumper of the bus but the police moved to clear the mess!

BBC Day reports that it ‘slipped out of his hands’ but this is more euphemistic than anything else. Surely, after winning a trophy for the first time in 18 years (and the first trophy of any kind since 2008), couldn’t someone be just a little more careful? Imagine if it was Arsenal who had won for example the Carling Cup. We all know the situation at the Emirates. Perhaps Wenger, who Mourinho jibed over Arsenal’s protracted trophy drought, could have barred Eboue the chance to lift it high above his head.

Nevertheless, this small ‘mishandling’ of the trophy by Ramos didn’t stop the celebration.

Madrid’s last two Copa del Rey triumphs have now come from the Mestalla Stadium, a venue where they first played their final in 1929. The victory also earned Los Blancos their first trophy under Coach Jose Mourinho (who has now tasted domestic cup glory in four different countries - in Portugal with Porto, in England with Chelsea, in Italy with Internazionale and now in Spain with Madrid) and will give them a major boost heading into two decisive UEFA Champions League semi-final clash. The first leg of the matches will be played at the Santiago Bernabeu on April 27, with the decisive second game in Camp Nou, Barcelona, six days later.

Below are the highlights, first of last Real's 1-0 triumph over Barcelona, and second is Madrid's last triumph in 1992-93 against Zaragoza...

And That's thesteifmastertake!!