Immaculate. Without blemish. Without any stain. This has been the way of the Royal in this Copa del Rey that tomorrow writes in La Cartuja its epilogue after 471 days of crossing that have taken the txuri urdin group from Palencia to Ceuta, passing through Donostia, Madrid and Miranda de Ebro, Estacion Esta last in which the txuri urdin trip was abruptly interrupted that already distant March 4, 2020.
After 34 years of waiting, no realzale had imagined such a scenario, even less when memorable nights such as those at the Santiago Bernabéu or Anduva were experienced along the way, even when the coronavirus was already letting its effects be felt. At the time, no one thought to see his team playing a title again without the warmth of its people in the stands.
The trip began on November 17, 2019, in Las Rozas, when Marc
Cucurella He drew the balls that matched La Real in the first round with the unknown CD Becerril, a team from the small Palencia town of Becerril de Campos, with just over 700 inhabitants, and which, recently promoted to Third, welcomed their confrontation from the El Rescate bar. with the txuri urdin with great joy.
La Real put this town in the showcase that immediately turned to the celebration of a match that had to move from Mariano
Haro, an ancient field for 2,000 fans, to the Nueva Balastera de Palencia. There, on December 19, the Real thrashed the modest Becerril showing deep respect towards an opponent who did not give a bad kick and towards a town that has forever been twinned with the Gipuzkoan club.
The following day the hype sent the Real to Ceuta to face another Third, although with little to do with the Becerril. The team had to fly from Iruñea to Tetouan and from there travel by bus guarded by the Moroccan police to the Tarajal border, which crossed without problems to reach Alfonso Murube, the scene where they resolved the tie in 10 minutes of inspiration.
After the cleanup of the first two rounds, the kick drum for the round of 32 already offered few ‘Marías’, but the draw was not all bad as it paired Real with a Espanyol in the doldrums and with the advantage of playing in Anoeta.
WJ case explodes
However, the outbreak a few hours after the match of the case Willian
Joseph, with his voluntary absence from the call to force his departure to Tottenham, clouded a match that the Real knew how to solve with solvency, the same as it did in the second round against Osasuna, again in Anoeta.
The final exam that confirmed the Real as a candidate for everything would come in the quarterfinals. This time the draw was rogue and paired Real with Real Madrid. And at the Santiago Bernabéu.
And there, where he knelt so many times, where at the beginning of the 80s a League was stolen from him, the Real claimed its status as a candidate with a victory that is already part of history. The feat had its heroes and its epic finale, with the team at a disadvantage defending a minimal but sufficient income to sneak into the semifinals. The dream was possible.
The elimination of Barça at the hands of Athletic left the two Basque teams together with Granada and Mirandés in the semifinals, already two-legged, as unprecedented as they were open. Mirandés played, with the first leg in Anoeta where Real failed to get their classification on track and where at times they suffered to go to Anduva with an advantage. There, and with the Covid already hitting hard, the Real played its most practical match to seal 32 years later a new presence in a final that has been long in coming. We'll see if it was worth it.
If the path of the Real was immaculate, the opposite happened to an Athletic that surpassed with solvency the first qualifying rounds against Intercity de Alicante and Sestao to live an agony that showed the resilience of the rojiblanco set.
Against Elche, and after drawing on one goal, he overcame the tie in a penalty shoot-out in which he ended up losing 3-1 after the first three shots.
He repeated the experience in Tenerife, where he reached the throws from 11 meters after a goal of Yuri in minute 118 (3-3), when he chewed his elimination.
In the quarterfinals, against Barça, a goal from Williams in the 93rd minute he got him into a semifinal in which another Yuri In the 81st minute he avoided elimination against Granada.
