Barca recover to edge Real
Football King’s Cup: Madrid’s Pepe goes unpunished after ugly incident
Eric Abidal netted a rare but superbly-taken goal to give Barcelona a 2-1 comeback win at holders Real Madrid in a King's Cup quarterfinal first leg on Wednesday as Pep Guardiola's side tightened their stranglehold over their rivals. 
The France fullback, who extended his contract with the Spanish and European champions on Monday, galloped on to a floated Lionel Messi pass 13 minutes from time and calmly slotted past Iker Casillas to give the 2011 runners-up the advantage for next week's second leg in Barcelona.
Real forward Cristiano Ronaldo had put the home side ahead with a breakaway goal in the 11th minute before Barca captain Carles Puyol flung himself at Xavi's corner to power a header past Spain team-mate Casillas for a 49th-minute equaliser.
The winners of the tie will face Valencia or their city neighbours Levante, who were scheduled to play their quarterfinal first leg on Thursday.
On the other side of the draw, headers from the towering Fernando Llorente and the diminutive Iker Muniain gave Athletic Bilbao a 2-0 win at home to Real Mallorca in their last-eight first leg earlier on Wednesday. Mirandes stunned Espanyol by opening a two-goal lead in their first leg on Tuesday before the home side struck three times in four minutes late on to secure a 3-2 lead for the second leg in Miranda de Ebro.
Pepe, who had earlier been booked, was lucky to stay on the pitch in the second half after television replays showed he deliberately stamped on Messi's hand when the World Player of the Year was sitting on the ground. There were a few ugly challenges late in the game and Carvalho was booked for cynically chopping Messi down from behind as the Argentine was racing away towards goal.
Barca's victory extended Guardiola's recent dominance over Real. It was his ninth win in 13 'Clasicos' since he took the helm in 2008 and came on his 41st birthday.
Disgraceful
Meanwhile, the normally loyal Madrid-based sports papers rounded on Pepe.
The behaviour of Portuguese international was “shameful” and “intolerable”, Marca wrote in an opinion piece, while As columnist Luis Nieto said he deserved “general condemnation” and should be punished.
“Violent, with excessive aggression, play-acting and a long way from what the behaviour of a footballer in a high-level match should be,” Marca wrote.
“What's more, his problem is that he is a repeat offender,” the paper added, recalling an incident at the end of the 2008-09 season when Pepe kicked Francisco Casquero while the Getafe player was on the ground, an action that earned the Portuguese a 10-match ban.
