Barcelona held off a spirited Real Madrid fightback to hang on for a 2-2 draw that was enough to knock the holders out of the Spanish Cup at the quarter-final stage.

Barcelona looked headed for a comfortable victory when they went up 2-0 at halftime in the second leg of another feisty “clasico” matchup, but ended up narrowly escaping with a 4-3 aggregate victory after Madrid rallied in the second half.

Cup holders Madrid dominated much of the frantic, up-tempo game full of penalty appeals and physical play, but still had to watch as Barcelona took a commanding lead into the break thanks to late first-half goals from substitute Pedro Rodriguez and Daniel Alves.

Having lost the first leg 2-1 at home and needing three goals to advance, Cristiano Ronaldo started the comeback with a 68th-minute goal before substitute Karim Benzema equalised in the 73rd minute.

But Madrid finished the game with 10 men after Sergio Ramos was sent off for a second booking late in the game.

“We played a great team, this is a ‘clasico’ so you know right up to the end you’re going to have to suffer and hold off your rival,” said Alves.

“They caused us a lot of problems by pressuring high, but we knew how to respond.”

Coach Jose Mourinho certainly didn’t approach the return with the same defensive plan he used in the first leg.

He opted to include Pepe in the lineup despite the defender – who was jeered loudly with every touch after he stamped on Lionel Messi’s hand in the first leg.

“We played a good game, the players played a very good game,” said Mourinho.

“We came here looking to win. We knew we were behind. We were motivated – wanted to win.”

Madrid was unlucky over the first half hour as Mesut Oezil hit the crossbar with a superb 30-metre effort, and Barcelona keeper Jose Manuel Pinto made a number of point-blank stops from Gonzalo Higuain.

Iniesta was taken off with a leg injury and replaced by Pedro after 30 minutes.

Spanish international Pedro opened the scoring as Messi drew in three defenders before flicking a perfect pass into the midfielder’s path, and he slotted past Iker Casillas for the 43rd-minute opener.

Xavi then had a shot deflected into the path of Alves, who rifled an unstoppable shot from just outside the area into the top corner to double the lead.

Mourinho took off Diarra, Kaka and Higuain in the second half for Esteban Granero, Jose Callejon and Benzema and the visitors’ attack prospered.

Ramos had a goal disallowed for a foul, before Ronaldo managed to breathe life into the already highly-charged match by running onto Oezil’s through ball to round Pinto and score from a tight angle.

Benzema then volleyed home the equaliser to put Madrid one goal away from advancing.

But Mourinho’s men could not find a winner as Barcelona continued their recent domination over their bitter rivals.

“We were superior to Barca’s team today,” said Pepe.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said Madrid were able to disrupt their normally-fluid play with physical play.

“When you go up against such a good team, these things happen,” Guardiola said. “You have to get over these things and we did.”

The Spanish and European champions will play Valencia or Levante in the semi-finals.

Earlier on Wednesday, Athletic Bilbao beat Mallorca 1-0 to reach the semi-finals 3-0 on aggregate.