Athletic Bilbao face the second round against Barcelona on Saturday (13:30) to try to win the Copa del Rey, after losing the 2020 Cup two weeks ago against Real Sociedad, in a duel between the most successful two clubs in the history of that trophy.
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Athletic has a second consecutive chance to win a 25th Copa del Rey title, after the one it had two weeks ago against Real Sociedad in the 2020 Copa del Rey final, postponed by the pandemic.
The ‘Lions’ fell 1-0 in the first Basque final in the history of the Cup, so now they have a new opportunity to pick up a trophy they haven’t won since 1984, just against Barcelona.
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“The final is history,” Marcelino Garcia Toral’s coach said on Friday, adding that “we are very excited.”
“We are facing this new final against a great club, but with all the motivation and all the will”, warned the “Lions” captain, Iker Muniain.
Since winning the Cup 37 years ago, Athletic have reached five finals, three of which were against Barça, all lost, the last in 2015 when they fell 3-1.
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Probable teams:
Athletic: Unai Simón – De Marcos, Yeray, Íñigo Martínez, Yuri – Berenguer, Dani García, Vesga, Muniain – Raúl García, Iñaki Williams. Coach: Marcelino García Toral
Barcelona: Ter Steguen – Dest, Araujo, Lenglet, Jordi Alba – Busquets, De Jong, Pedri – Dembélé, Griezmann, Messi. Coach: Ronald Koeman (NED)
Referee: Juan Martinez Munuera