Quarter-finals: Roger signs the history of Levante (1-0)
Glory is for the one who owns an elf.
And
Unai Simón
has it.
Although the doubts have clouded him this season more than expected, because in the end he is young and the failures are part of the learning process.
But the Alava goalkeeper always gets up, because he does not know the fragility and if the effort and discipline.
Simón deserved a night like yesterday's, in which he qualified Athletic for their second consecutive Cup semi-final, stopping two penalties in the final shoot-out.
[Narration and statistics (1-1, 1-4)]
Along the way, a Betis was left who fought his options and whose glory escaped between his fingers, first with the goal of
Raúl García
in the last breath that forced the extension and later in the penalty shoot-out in which
Sergio Canales
and Juanmi ran into Simón while Athletic made it full.
The Betic team has reached this point, while the rojiblanco maintains his dream, his
Bilbao
, of playing two Cup finals in 15 days.
Without
Iker Muniain
, who was dropped at the last minute due to physical discomfort, Athletic modulated their game proposal, but not their way of approaching the matches.
Looking for more direct play and second plays,
Marcelino's
team
was more effusive in the first minutes, throwing balls towards
Asier Villalibre
and Raúl García -
Iñaki Williams
, also touched, was a substitute - to generate superiorities in the rival field.
Joel Robles
, however, was not in trouble, as Athletic's greatest domain did not reach his area.
Sharp fang
The two teams prioritized not to make mistakes, being a match without a net.
Álex Berenguer
,
Nabil Fekir
and Canales appeared little, which penalized the fluidity of the duel and only the errors of
Yeray Álvarez
gave some flight to the crash.
Around the hour of the match, Betis gained presence and amassed three good chances, although none of them took a direction towards goal.
Simón - who started after
Jokin Ezkieta
in the two previous cup rounds - arrived at halftime with immaculate gloves and Joel only used them to block a Yeray header that posed no threat.
As Fekir grew, Athletic began to be charged with yellows.
Yeray, even, the expulsion was played five minutes after the restart.
That happened because Betis came out with a much sharper fang from the locker room, aborting all the long shots of their rival and completely taking over the ball.
But, again, Athletic's concern did not reach Simón.
And when that happens, the risk is that any isolated play could turn the game uphill for the team that apparently dominates.
Both
Yuri
and
Óscar de Marcos
threatened to do so, without actually specifying.
A perfect center
And when extra time seemed inevitable,
Juanmi
showed his opportunism to catch a bounced ball and beat Simón with a volley hitting the post.
And when the victory of Betis already seemed inevitable,
Iñigo Martínez
took to the mountains in the fourth minute of discount and invented a perfect center towards the head of Raúl García, who took advantage of it with his usual talent in these situations.
Ten minutes of precious madness.
The extension was above all an exercise in collective prudence.
Neither wanted to take a single risk.
Sometimes because they couldn't.
Already in the second half, twins began to climb on all sides of the field and the two came to the conclusion that the best thing was to toss a coin.
Thus came the penalties, in which Simón showed that he is worth a semifinal.
At least.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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