Aplace in the Copa del Rey final will be on the line when Athletic Bilbao welcome Atletico Madrid to San Mames for the second leg of their last-four tie on Thursday evening.
The hosts take a slender lead into the home clash after they recorded a narrow victory at the Wanda Metropolitano earlier this month.
Athletic have the upper hand in their fifth consecutive Copa del Rey semifinal appearance after Alex Berenguer’s 25th-minute penalty proved enough to guide Ernesto Valverde’s
side to a 1-0 win in the first leg.
Since enjoying a successful trip to the capital, Los Leones went on to play out a goalless draw with Almeria and claim a 3-2 victory over Girona,
before they were beaten 3- 1 in Sunday’s away meeting with Real Betis.
Having collected 49 points from their 26 league matches, the fifth-placed side are currently in the hunt to return to the Champions League for the first time since 2014-15, with three points separating them from Atletico in fourth position.
The Basque outfit will briefly put their top-four push on hold as they bid to reach the Copa del Rey’s showpiece event for the
first time since playing back-to-back finals in 2021 due to the fact that the 2019-20 final was pushed back due to COVID-19.
Having lost each of their last six final appearances, Athletic are still dreaming of lifting the
Copa del Rey final for the first time since 1983-84 when they beat Barcelona 1-0 to win the competition for the 23rd time in their history.
With Athletic looking to protect their narrow advantage from the first leg of their semi-final tie, they will look to draw inspiration from the fact that they have avoided defeat in each of their previous 14 competitive home games.
Atleti have won just one of their last five away matches, and with Athletic unbeaten in their previous 14 matches at San Mames, we think that the hosts will make full use of home advantage to claim a narrow win and secure their place in the Copa del Rey final.
Credit: sportsmole.co.uk
