Valencia cruised into the last four of the Copa del Rey on Thursday with a dominant 3-0 victory over Levante in their quarter-final second-leg.
Goals by Aritz Aduriz and Pablo Piatti in the first half put the result out of reach of the hosts, before the Argentina international scored again five minutes from time, setting up a date with Barcelona in the semi-final with a 7-1 aggregate victory.
With most of the possession, Valencia were able to go on the counterattack several times and made their rivals pay twice in five minute-spell in the first half.
In the 25th minute, Piatti ran onto a ball on the right before advancing towards goal, only to pull back at the bye-line for Aduriz to finish with a powerful effort.
Piatti was awarded for his quality assist with a goal of his own shortly after, as Juan Bernat sent the Argentine through on the right hand side.
The midfielder raced towards goal diagonally before finishing calmly into the left corner to double Valencia’s lead.
Things did not improve for Levante in the second half as desperate long-range shots and poor precision plagued any hope at a comeback.
More damage was done 20 minutes to go as Oscar Serrano was shown his second yellow card, reducing the visitors to 10 men.
And Valencia made sure they capitalised on their numerical advantage five minutes from time, with Piatti grabbing his second after Aduriz had his header saved by Gustavo Munua.
With the victory, Valencia advance to the semi-finals, where they will host Barcelona next Wednesday, with the second leg the following week.
