Athletic and Real Madrid meet again in the quarterfinals 60 years later

The Athletic Club and Real Madrid, paired this Friday in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey, will meet again more than 60 years later in the round played by the eight best teams in the tournament.

On that occasion, the white team dropped the rojiblanco after winning both in San Mames, on June 1, 1961 by 0-2 with goals from Mateos and Puskas, about three days later at the Santiago Bernabéu 3-0 thanks to two goals from Alfredo Di Stefano and another of the recently deceased Paco Gento.

This tie will be the seventh between Athletic and Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the Cup, the first in a single match. The balance so far is three wins for each team.

The cMadrid ensemble, In addition to that match in 1961, they won in 1934, in a tie that needed four games before deciding in a second playoff match, and in 1936 less than two months before the Civil War broke out.

The Athletic, meanwhile, qualified for the semifinals in the 1920, 1923 and 1942 editions, in the latter in a playoff.

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