You have to see the faces on the Athletic bench and San Mamés standing when Nico Williams started touching his pubic area and ended up throwing himself on the grass to ask for a change. More than one red and white fan’s night was bittersweet, even though at that time the scoreboard reflected 3-0 in favor of the lions. There, unfortunately for the cup-winning interests of the Bilbao team, things did not end. Iñaki, the oldest of the brothers, also took to the green minutes later to continue the substitution.
Happiness, they say, is never complete, although the script for this fight against Aguirre so far has always been complex Mallorca seems to have been written by an Athletic himself. A goal for the first time in a strategic play, another minute after the action started from a set piece, a third with authorization from VAR when the rivals seemed to want to wake up and the fourth with the signature of a captain who has recently spent more time on the bench with the field.
All this in addition to an action between Yuri and Raíllo inside the Unai Simón area with a score of 1-0 similar to the one experienced last Sunday in Cádiz between Fali and Nico Williams. If what happened against Nuevo Mirandilla was like a penalty, what happened yesterday was three quarters of the same. Nobody understands VAR.
For this event ahead of the first leg of the Cup semi-final against Atlético de Madrid, Valverde chose an unprecedented starting eleven. An eleven that has a lot in common with almost everything that the gasteiztarran coach fielded in the domestic tournament, although with Yeray’s newness along with Paredes in the axis of the starting defense. The ‘combination’ Galarreta and Beñat Prados in the double pivot, true, was not repeated too much. The only existing precedent of the same start so far in the league tournament has only occurred once: the visit of Granada.
Normality under the sticks
The red and white news in this league clash on Friday night came, in this way, from the middle and from the midline to the back. Up top, as usual this season, Williams repeated on the wing with Sancet and Guruzeta inside. Another significant fact about last season with Valverde on the bench was that there was no pre-Cup rotation between the sticks. Unai Simón, in this way, remains the goalkeeper of the League and Agirrezabala, except for a surprise, will play only and exclusively in the KO tournament. Having minutes in the league championship to have confidence in the cupbearer, because we have seen, happened in a better life.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
