Athletic Club is the winner of the Copa del Rey

Athletic Club and RCD Mallorca were playing today, Saturday, April 6, in the final of the Copa del Rey at La Cartuja in Seville. Both teams arrived in two very different situations, and if the Basques are having a great season as fifth in the league and two points off the Champions League spots, Mallorca came from a previous season of a very high level, and with the new signings they I expected much more than what they are giving this season, which can even flirt with relegation.

Be that as it may, both have done more than worthy merits to have appeared today at this Spanish football event, and the fact is that the Copa del Rey is a trophy, which although many want to downplay its value when it is won by another, highly prestigious, and Athletic may know a lot about that, as it is the second team that has won the most cups. For its part, Mallorca arrived having only won one cup in its history, back in 2003.

The match has developed quite slowly, both teams have tried to propose, but since Mallorca's first goal at the beginning of the match, they have assumed their role of being the small team of the two and have locked themselves further back, taking balls as they could throughout the first part. Special mention to Samú Costa who played a top-level game.

The second half was more active, where Athletic came out with the lead and in the 50th minute they managed to tie thanks to Sancet, who despite not having been so active during the match, that chance was enough to overtake yours. Nico and Iñaki continued trying several times, even with a goal disallowed for the youngest Williams, but that's how everything continued until extra time.

Extra time has lost all the physicality that the second half could offer us, and with all the tension accumulated from being a final, it meant that during the first 90 minutes the players gave everything, whether they arrived in extra time plagued by injuries or with very loaded muscles that has caused numerous changes.

But where there is fatigue, there are also occasions, and in some failures of both defenses, or genius of the new faces that have come out, there have been great occasions that have not been able to materialize, but that have maintained the interest of all those who were watching the game.

And as it could not be otherwise, big events always end with the most tense moments, and this final had to go to penalties. Mallorca was something that seemed to have been looking for quite a few minutes, and it had just won on penalties against another Basque team in the semi-finals.

But Athletic and Real are not the same team, and things like that have been seen. Some very solid penalties by Aguirrezabala who saved the second and third, to close a final 4-2 that made his team champions, 40 years later.

Nico Williams has been chosen as best player of the match, and Valverde, after this cup, is among the historic coaches of a team as glorious as Athletic Club.