Athletic Bilbao defeated Espanyol 1-0 to book a place in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals.

An Oscar de Marcos goal beat an RCD Espanyol side who were completely and utterly subdued by a tactically astute performance from Los Rojiblancos.

Very early on, Alex Berenguer and Oier Zarraga showed Athletic's intent to get shots away with couple of long-distance efforts that missed the target.

Joselu had a goal ruled out for offside on 26 minutes, the first and only time Espanyol breached Julen Agirrezabala's area Athletic, in a tremendous defensive performance of both pressing and positioning, never let them get close again.

The strike came off the back of a flowing team move in the 26th minute. Zarraga played a pass into Oihan Sancet, who teed up De Marcos with a sly back heel, the right-back then slotting a low drive past Joan Garcia. The 37,564 spectators braving the cold to attend went wild.

The Lions will discover their opponents on Friday as they look to reach the semi-finals for a fourth year in a row.