Bilbao Beat Athletico Madrid 1-0 Through Alex Berenguer's Penalty Kick

Athletic Bilbao won 1-0 at Atletico Madrid headquarters/ Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - Athletic Bilbao won 1-0 at Atletico Madrid's headquarters, in the semifinals of the first leg of the King's Cup, Thursday, February 8, early in the morning. Alex Berenguer's only goal made victory impressive. The winger converted the penalty in the 25th minute to seal the win, but Atletico was frustrated after their penalty application at the end of the match was not approved. Yeray Alvarez violated Alvaro Morata in the forbidden box, but a VAR review showed that the forward had already been in an offside position in the process of the violation. This is Atletico's first home defeat in all competitions in the 2023/2024 season. They pressed us well in particular in the second half, but in the end we got very good results. We did what we needed to do throughout the year, the team sacrificed a lot and this is the way we need to go ahead,' said Berenguer, ANTARA, Thursday 8 February. Atletico, who sits in fourth place in the Spanish League standings and trailed ten points behind leaders Real Madrid, would be very grateful if they were able to win the Raja Cup. Diego Simeone's men beat the reigning champions Real Madrid in the last 16 and beat Sevilla to reach the semifinals, but will need to achieve a revival while playing at Basque on 29 February. Meanwhile Bilbao, broke Barcelona's record 31 wins in the quarter-finals, and played with full courage at the Metropolitan Stadium. The Basque club has lost in the last six Cup finals they played, although they had a very good record with its 23 trophies in that event.

The visitors opened the scoring in the capital when Reinildo Mandava fouled Benat Prados at the spot to get his team penalized. Berenguer later became the penalty executioner, and succeeded in outwitting Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak.Memphis Depay had the chance to equalize, but Aitor Paredes was able to block his shot after a mistake made by Julen Agirezawala. Another chance belonging to Atletico was wasted by Antoine Griezmann whose shot went wide. Asier Villalibre should have doubled Bilbao's lead with a shot that hit the side of the net, after Oblak pulled off a shot that was aimed at his movement. Towards the end of the game, Atletico thought they were awarded a penalty, but offside Morata canceled the penalty. The last attempt of the forward also failed to score a goal, as his header widened. Real Sociedad drew 0-0 at Real Mallorca's headquarters in the semifinals of another first leg on Tuesday.