Athletic Bilbao ended forty years of drought, by winning the Copa del Rey, after defeating 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 no matter, for Bilbao this success has the spring flavor of a renewal 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 a good one, but not without difficulty, because Mallorca, also a surprise guest on the last step of the competition, opened the scoring in the 21st minute through Dani Rodriguez, author of a beautiful wrapped shot after a poorly returned corner. by the Bilbao defense.
The Athletic striker, Nico Williamswas decisive upon returning from the locker room, offering the pass to Jungle Sancet for the equalization (50th).
Reinvigorated, Athletic continued to dominate the debates, without however finding the fault. And this until the extension. The penalty shootout then came to decide between the two teams and after the Bilbao goalkeeper, Julen Agirrezabalarepelled the shot of Manu Morlanesthe 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 Nadalpresent to support the Balearic team, in the stands of the Olympic stadium.
