Athletic Bilbao won their first Spanish Cup in 40 years in a penalty shoot-out after an exhausting 120 minutes against valiant Mallorca.
When the game went to penalties the Mallorca players celebrated it like a victory. They had resisted for so long and now they fancied themselves from spot-kicks, but they were wrong.
Vedat Muriqi scored for them. He for one, did not deserve to be on the losing side. Raul Garcia leveled for Athletic. But then Manu Morlanes’ kick was saved by Julen Agirrezabala and Athletic never lost the advantage. Iker Muniain scored. Nemanja Radonjic skied his kick. Mikel Vesga slipped but his shot hit the back of the net. Antonio Sanchez kept Mallorca alive by scoring. But Alex Berenguer buried his and the cup was Athletic’s.
Their coach Ernesto Valverde put his head in his hands. He won the cup coaching Barcelona in 2018. Now he had delivered success for a club whose tradition is based on winning this particular trophy that only Barcelona has won more often in Spain.
There were well over 20,000 inside the stadium to celebrate it. And close to 30,000 outside with so many having travelled without tickets now soaking up the success in host city Seville.
Beaten coach Javier Aguirre had played his hand well. His Mallorca side is down towards the end of the table and should not have been such a match for high-flying Athletic.
He repeated the tactic of the semi-final urging his players to roar as if the penalty had already been scored when he read out the name of the spot-kick takers but this time it did not work.
Nico Williams was man-of-the-match but he had gifted Mallorca their first chance of the game giving the ball straight to Muriqi whose dipping curler was pushed over by Julen Agirrezabala. Nothing came from the resulting first corner but from the second corner Mallorca scored.
Sergi Darder’s kick was flicked on by Cyle Larin on 20 minutes and when it came out to Gio Gonzalez his shot was blocked by Aitor Paredes. As it came back out to Jose Copete his shot was pushed out by Agirrezabala. This time when it came back out to Antonio Raillo he calmly rolled it to Rodriguez in the crowded area and, just as calmly, he picked his spot to put Mallorca ahead.
The Williams brothers had warmed their engines by the mid-point of the first half and Iñaki sprinted clear but got the ball caught up in his feet and couldn’t get the shot away. Nico then lashed the ball past Greif from a tight angle but the goal didn’t count because he was offside when Yuri Berchiche played him through.
It was Nico who assisted the equalizer at the start of the second half robbing Rodriguez and cutting through the Mallorca defence with a pass that found Sancet who buried the chance.
The goal came either side of Mallorca's chances with Larin forcing a save from Agirrezabala and Muriqi’s cross hitting the post. But it felt as though Athletic were on top now despite those two close calls.
