The 2018–19 Copa del Rey was the 117th staging of the Copa del Rey (including two seasons where two rival editions were played). The winners were assured a place in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage, and both they and the runners-up automatically qualified for the four-team 2020 Supercopa de España.
Barcelona entered the competition as four-time defending champions in an attempt to conquer an unprecedented fifth consecutive title. The Catalans reached the final for the sixth time in a row, but were beaten by Valencia 2–1 who achieved their eighth title overall and the first since 2008.[1][2]
New entries: Clubs participating in Segunda División gained entry. Byes: One team from Segunda División B or Tercera received a bye. Opponents seeding: 22 Segunda División teams faced each other. Local team seeding: Draw of lots. Knock-out tournament type: Single match
Third round
14 September 2018
17 October 2018
11
43 → 32
Byes: One Segunda División team received a bye. Opponents seeding: Ten Segunda División teams faced each other. Local team seeding: Draw of lots. Knock-out tournament type: Single match
Round of 32
19 October 2018
31 October 2018
16
32 → 16
New entries: Clubs participating in La Liga gained entry. Opponents seeding: The seven teams from La Liga which qualified for 2018–19 UEFA competitions, faced the remaining six teams from Segunda División B and Tercera División and one Segunda División Team. The other five Segunda División teams played against La Liga teams. The eight remaining La Liga teams faced each other. Local team seeding: First leg at home of team in lower division. Knock-out tournament type:Double match
5 December 2018
Round of 16
13 December 2018
9 January 2019
8
16 → 8
Opponents seeding: Draw of lots. Local team seeding: First leg at home of the team in the lower division. Knock-out tournament type: Double match
16 January 2019
Quarter-finals
18 January 2019
23 January 2019
4
8 → 4
Opponents seeding: Draw of lots. Local team seeding: Luck of the draw. Knock-out tournament type: Double match
41 teams entered the competition at this round. Five Segunda B or Tercera División teams that in the previous season did not play in Tercera División received a bye. The rest were paired according to proximity criteria.[4]
Due to the breach of the competition rules, giving byes to unauthorised teams, the draw of the first and second round had to be partially repeated.[5]
The 22 Segunda División teams entered the competition in this round and were joined by the winners of the previous stage, except for Mutilvera, who received a bye to the third round. Segunda División teams were drawn against each other.
Round of 32 pairings were as follows: the six remaining teams participating in the 2018–19 Segunda División B and Tercera División faced the four 2018–19 La Liga teams which qualified for the UEFA Champions League and two of the three teams which qualified for the Europa League. The six remaining teams participating in Segunda División faced the last Europa League team not drawn previously and other La Liga teams. The remaining teams faced each other. In matches involving teams from different league tiers, the team in the lower tier played the first leg at home. This rule was also applied in the Round of 16, but not for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, in which the order of legs was based on the luck of the draw.
The draw for the round of 32 took place on 19 October at La Ciudad del Fútbol, in Las Rozas de Madrid.[7] On 23 October, the RFEF designated the referees for first leg matches.[8] All first leg matches were scheduled to be played between 30 October and 1 November; however, the match between Athletic Bilbao and Huesca had to be postponed because of the preparations for an MTV concert in San Mamés.[9] On 8 November, the RFEF made public the schedules for the second leg, scheduled to be played between 4 and 6 December.[10]
The Round of 16 draw took place on December 13, 2018, at Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas, Madrid. The first leg took place in the second week of January and the return leg the following week.[12]
^Ebro played their home match at La Romareda, the home stadium of Zaragoza, instead of their regular stadium La Almozara, in the same city, due to its low capacity.[11]