Athletic Bilbao ended forty years of drought, by winning the Copa del Rey, after overcoming Mallorca on penalties (4-2, 1-1 after extra time), Saturday in Seville, theater of a long-undecided finale.
The Basque club, long holder of the record for Copa del Rey victories, now has 24 to its name. In four decades, FC Barcelona has had time to do better with 31 trophies.
But what does it matter, for Bilbao this success with the spring flavor of a revival which took time to materialize, because 1984 was also the year of its last title as champions of Spain. Since then, Athletic has played six Copa del Rey finals, all lost including four against Barça and a particularly bitter one against Basque rival Real Sociedad, in 2020 (1-0).
The seventh was the good one, but it was not without difficulty, because Mallorca, also a surprise guest on the last step of the competition, opened the scoring in the 21st minute by Dani Rodriguez, author of a beautiful wrapped shot after a corner poorly returned by the Bilbao defense.
After a goal disallowed for offside shortly before the break, Athletic striker Nico Williams was decisive after returning from the locker room, offering the pass to Oihan Sancet for the equalizer (50th).
Whereupon, reinvigorated, Athletic continued to dominate the debates, without however finding the fault. And this until the extra time, whether on the free kick just next to Iker Muniain (102nd) or when Nico Williams, although in a good position after a back cross from Oscar De Marcos, saw his shot deflected into corner by a Mallorcan defender (112th).
The penalty shootout then came to decide between the two teams and after Bilbao goalkeeper, Julen Agirrezabala, repelled Manu Morlanes’ shot, Serbian Nemanja Radonjic sent the ball over the cages on the next attempt.
It was the end of Majorca’s hopes, to the great dismay of Rafael Nadal, present to support the Balearic team, in the stands of the Olympic stadium, failing to be able to play tennis again, he whose presence at Roland-Garros is very uncertain.
