Athletic once again put its competitive gene on record last Thursday at the Ciutat de Valencia. That Marcelino's team is behind on the scoreboard in a Cup match stopped being news a few weeks ago. That his goal ends without receiving so much, too.
The good thing is that the lions always have room for the comeback with the Asturian coach on the bench and that they never miss their appointment with the goal. What happened against Levante, therefore, must be considered as a point and followed in the trajectory of the Bilbao team in the so-called KO tournament. Something that repeats a tie yes and others too.
This cup regularity, in any case, is inherited from the Gaizka Garitano stage. The deriotarra coach, who made his debut as coach of the first team with a 0-4 against Huesca in this tournament, had no choice but to prioritize the League in his first weeks at the helm of Athletic, so the elimination in Round of 16 of the 2018-2019 campaign against Sevilla. 1-3 at home and 0-1, Guruzeta's target passed by Ibai, in the Pizjuán.
Since that long-ago January 16, 2019, the rojiblanco team has counted all its cup crosses, not all the games included in each of them, as victories. Intercity, Sestao River, Elche, Tenerife, Barça and Granada were their victims on the way to the final against Real, still pending. Two heats won on penalties (Elche and Tenerife) and another for the double value of the goals in the opposite field in the event of a tie (Granada). That loss of Los Cármenes 2-1 (the lions beat 1-0 at San Mamés) was one year old yesterday.
The arrival of Marcelino has served, among other things, to improve the rojiblancas statistics in this time of life and death competitions. It all started with the semifinal and final of the Super Cup against Madrid and Barça, respectively. The lions beat the whites 1-2 and 2-3, via extra time, the Catalans.
His career in this edition of the Cup is extremely curious. UD Ibiza, Alcoyano, Betis and Levante (the granotas both in San Mamés and in their field) began by getting ahead on the scoreboard against Marcelino's. It was enough for the lions against the first two rivals to move the bench at half-time and sign the 1-2 before the 90th minute.
At Villamarín, after conceding near the end and drawing a sigh from the end, qualification came via penalty shoot-out. Both Unai Simón and the lions chosen to deliver the maximum penalties embroidered it against the Verdiblancos. The pass at the Ciutat de Valencia did require an extension, but not penalties. Berenguer's goal in the 112th minute, after the ball bounced off Vukcevic's body, served to get into a new Cup final, the second in a row.
Another piece of information to gauge the combative spirit of this Athletic cup-bearer of the last two seasons lies in the minute of the achievement of the goal or the goals necessary to not be eliminated or level the score.. Yuri signed 3-3 against Tenerife in minute 118 of extra time and 2-1 against Granada in Los Cármenes in 81. Williams, meanwhile, sentenced Barça in minute 93 in the quarterfinals of the Cup in San Mamés and in the extension of the Super Cup final in La Cartuja (Villalibre had previously signed 2-2 in 90).
Nuñez, in the current edition of the KO tournament, sentenced UD Ibiza in 91, Williams to Alcoyano in 78, Raúl García to Betis (penalty shootout on the sidelines) in 78 and Berenguer to Levante in 112. Athletic , seen the seen, never gives the spoon.