Athletic beat Mallorca on penalties to win Copa del Rey
In their journey to the final, Athletic Bilbao triumphed over two of the biggest Spanish teams, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
Athletic Bilbao put an end to their six consecutive losses in the Copa del Rey finals by winning a thrilling penalty shoot-out against Mallorca, finally putting an end to a 40-year-long drought for trophies.
Athletic won their 24th Copa del Rey championship, which is their first since 1984. This victory was secured when Alex Berenguer scored the fourth goal in the shootout, resulting in a 4-2 win at Seville.
There was a lot of excitement at the packed La Cartuja stadium when Athletic won the game, putting an end to their recent string of losses in the tournament. They had suffered the disappointment of losing two finals in just two weeks earlier in 2021.
In the 21st minute of the game, Dani Rodriguez of Mallorca managed to score a goal against Athletic, who currently ranks 15th in La Liga. The ball was not cleared properly by the opposing team after a corner kick, leading to the opportunity for Rodriguez to make a successful shot.
Athletic, who is striving to secure a position in the top four of La Liga with the guidance of their former Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde, was not able to even the score just before halftime as Nico Williams' goal was denied due to an offside ruling.
However, Oihan Sancet managed to make it an even game shortly after the start of the second half by skillfully curling the ball into the net after Williams, who had been making a noticeable impact on the game, won back possession and set him up.
Neither team was able to score a winning goal, as Williams missed his shot during the second half of extra time and Muriqi's header was stopped by Athletic's goalkeeper Agirrezabala.
Not long ago in 2018, Mallorca was competing in the third division of Spanish football. Recently, they tried to win the Copa del Rey for the second time, which they first won in 2003.
However, in their fortieth appearance in the Spanish Cup final - whereby the last two attempts were unsuccessful due to the pandemic postponing the 2020 final - it was Athletic who were able to finally revel in a much-desired triumph.
During the penalty shootout, Agirrezabala, who is 23 years old, prevented Manu Morlanes from scoring and Nemanja Radonjic failed to hit the target. Meanwhile, all of Athletic's first four penalty takers were successful in scoring.
Athletic, the fourth-oldest club in Spain, has won the trophy on fewer occasions than only Barcelona, who has won it 31 times. Athletic maintains an exceptional philosophy of exclusively using players of Basque origin.
Match official: José Luis Munuera Montero
