Athletic Bilbao creates strong emotions when winning the King's Cup after 40 years of waiting

athletic bilbao tao cam xuc manh liet khi vo dich cup nha vua sau 40 nam cho doi hinh anh 1 — Athletic Bilbao wins the 2023/2024 Spanish King's Cup. (Photo: Reuters)

In the Spanish King's Cup final, Athletic Bilbao fell behind to Mallorca when Dani Rodriguez opened the scoring in the 21st minute. The Basque side equalized 1-1 in the 50th minute thanks to Oihan Sancet.

The score remained tied until the end of 120 minutes of play, forcing both sides to decide the winner by a penalty shootout. Athletic Bilbao showed their mettle by defeating Mallorca 4-2 in the penalty shootout.

Notably, all four Athletic Bilbao players who successfully took the penalty were substitutes: Raul Garcia, Iker Muniain, Mikel Vesga and Alejandro Berenguer. Goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala made a big contribution when he blocked Manuel Morlanes' shot and put pressure on Nemanja Radonjic to force a shot wide.

Defeating Mallorca, Athletic Bilbao won the 2023/2024 Spanish King's Cup after a 40-year wait. Previously, the last time the Basque team won the Spanish King's Cup was in 1984.

Since then, Athletic Bilbao have reached the finals of this competition six times and lost in 1985, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2020, 2021. The Basque team has only had the chance to win the Spanish Super Cup during this time, winning the title in 2015 and 2021.

This is also Athletic Bilbao's 24th Spanish King's Cup championship, an achievement only behind Barca (31 times) in this arena.