Bilbao Athletic Club are through to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. The Basques also knocked Real Madrid out of the competition after defending champions Barça. The goal of the evening came deep in the closing stages.
Real had to do without attacker Benzema, but several South Americans who had been on the road last week moved straight into the starting eleven. In a 4-3-3, the attack was Rodrygo-Asensio-Vinicius Junior, Alaba defended on the left.
The Basques, who had knocked defending champions Barcelona out of the Copa in the round of 16 just two weeks earlier, started extremely attack-minded at home in the San Mames and got off to two early starts (10th, 13th) through Dani Garcia, who had yet to score for Athletic in 133 previous appearances.
Free Basques, tired Madrilenians
The lack of a real centre-forward was clearly noticeable for the Royals, the build-up to the game seemed unimaginative, a real concept was not discernible. After about 20 minutes, however, the visitors managed to tame the cheeky Basques a little, but that did not necessarily improve the attractiveness of the game.
Real did not create a real chance until the break, and shortly before going into the catacombs, Nico Williams, who was replaced by Alex Berenguer at the start of the second half, was injured by an unnecessary chop pass.
There was no sign of Real being the Basques’ fearsome opponents this season after the restart. The Athletic Club had lost only six games this season before this match – three of them against the capital club.
No penalty – Alex Berenguer the matchwinner
The game continued to go almost exclusively in the direction of Courtois, who had to make an immediate save against Muniain (48th). A little later, an alleged handball by Nacho was not considered punishable by the VAR – Real could breathe a sigh of relief (50.). After that, the momentum fizzled out again bit by bit, and Madrid continued to produce absolutely nothing forward.
Instead, Real concentrated completely on defensive work, which was successful until the final phase – then the Blancos wanted to know: Asensio perfectly hacked through to Casemiro, who had plenty of time but finished too centrally on Agirrezabala (82nd). Real finally dared to go forward a little – and were then caught cold: After an almost incomprehensible string of mistakes on both sides, Joker Alex Berenguer grabbed the ball, made a hook and put the ball into the far corner (89th).
Real did not recover in the six minutes of injury time and were thus not undeservedly eliminated from the Copa del Rey. This leaves the Blancos with only two competitions to concentrate on, in the league they continue on Sunday against Granada (9pm). Bilbao defeated this year’s “Real curse” and is well deserved in the semi-finals.
