Narration and statistics This is how we live the match
Incident They break a window of the Real Madrid bus upon arrival at San Mamés
Quarters All crosses
The soccer award and the logic award went to those who most deserved it on the field and those who suffered the most from the circumstances of a crazy calendar.
Athletic played an entire game, hierarchical, with less of a similar goal, but at least one flag, the work of Berenguer, to be one step away from another Cup final, in the semifinals.
Madrid abused sufficiency, with exhausted footballers, and appeared orphaned of ideas without Benzema.
[Narration and stats: 1-0]
At 20 years old, everything weighs less than at 60. It would be missing.
To know that you don't have to be a coach, but years and kilometers cannot be added and subtracted, they do not start from the same unit of measurement.
The 20 are not the same with a beating on top like the one that the aforementioned, Vinicius and Rodrygo, in addition to Casemiro and Militao, gave themselves.
They were, despite this, in the field, because since the system cannot burst, let the footballers burst.
At the time, the first left San Mamés, stiff.
go on
Madrid could not be the same, whatever Ancelotti says, and it was not.
Marcelino knew it and implemented a little more the high pace of play that distinguishes both his boss as a coach, and the nature of Athletic.
The madridistas tried to protect themselves with the ball, with long and low-risk transitions, but it barely allowed them any peace of mind for a few minutes, because the fire was local, and fire burns.
Marcelino's players exerted high pressure from which Madrid came out with difficulties and, what is more important, they won all the individual duels, especially in the midfielders Dani García and Vesga, a fact that prevented the Whites from reorganizing in the transition.
Until just before half an hour, the visitors did not shoot between the three sticks of Agirrezabala.
By then, they had seen Courtois pull out a saving hand,
Berenguer (left) celebrates Athletic's winning goal.AP
Marcelino had said that Madrid without Benzema is less Madrid.
The reality is that it is much less Madrid.
This influenced, of course, Athletic's way of defending forward, narrowing the space.
If Madrid managed to recover, it was very far away and disconnected.
Ancelotti experimented with Asensio as a false nine, instead of opting for Jovic.
It didn't work.
Nor did he decide on Hazard or Bale, whom he had on the bench.
It was one more test of who he trusts and who he doesn't.
The San Mamés match was the opportunity to be one step away from a Cup final with the other greats out.
That is why he did not hesitate to place Courtois under the sticks instead of Lunin, who had played the tournament so far.
Marcelino, on the other hand, kept Agirrezabala.
The Italian modified a position in the defense to cover the left side,
by moving Alaba to that position and placing Nacho next to Militao, converted into a mast, very fast against the Williams as against Berenguer.
It was not enough.
For Ancelotti's team, it was not only the absence of Benzema as a striker, but also as a leader, as a point of support in the organization of attacking actions and in unloading the pressure.
Neither Modric and Kroos could assert their hierarchy.
It was symptomatic that both received the first two warnings from Madrid.
They were uncomfortable, overwhelmed, without spaces inside, with less ability to tilt to the sides and needed to fall back to make contact with the ball.
It is not surprising, then, that the first change ordered by Ancelotti was Isco, instead of an exhausted Vinicius, again ahead of Hazard or Bale.
The man from Malaga moved where the team needed him, but without managing to equalize the duel.
Camavinga followed him, more intense,
Athletic had done everything to be ahead, due to intensity and conviction.
He lacked the goal, a goal for which he had lost Nico Williams, injured.
He had to look for him when Madrid was already prowling, looking for his minutes.
This time they were not his.
Casemiro failed and Berenguer finished as the effort of his team deserved, in figure.
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