The King's Cup, a competition that has not been very popular in the Basque Country for decades because of its name, has somehow always been a special inspiration for the symbol of that part of Spain - Athletic Bilbao.
In 1984, Madrid and "Santiago Bernabeu" hosted the final match of this competition between Atlético and Barcelona.
It was that well-known match in which you didn't know who was hitting whom at the end, the match when Diego Maradona knocked out the reserve of the Basque club Miguel Angel Sola, and Bernd Schuster was the most belligerent in the world champion Cesar Luis Menotti's team alongside him.
At the same time, it was also the match when Athletic Bilbao won 1:0 with a goal by Endika Guaročena and thus crowned perhaps the best year in the club's history when it won the double crown, later the Spanish Super Cup.
Those were days of unprecedented happiness for the fans of that club - and among those 100.000 at the "Santiago Bernabeu", and also in almost the entire Basque Country.
However, it was until today the last time that Athletic Bilbao was the champion of Spain or the winner of the King's Cup.
And while the pride of the Basque country was the national champion eight times in total, the King's Cup - especially then, but also today - remains something where Atlético is a symbol, the club that in 1984 even lifted the cup of this competition for the 23rd time.
Throughout history, only Barcelona had more success in the King's Cup, which today can boast as many as 31 cups, and which, after the mentioned final in 1984, remained behind Aletico with 20 triumphs.
It is not a small matter when a club is watched in the back by the giant Real Madrid, and this is exactly the case with Atlético in the Cup, where the "royal club" has three fewer cups won.
Because of everything, it still seems unreal that the "red and whites" from San Mames during the last four decades have never celebrated in the King's Cup again, especially since they were a step away from the cup several times.
Already in 1985, Atletik was defeated in the final, and in recent history five more times - in 2009, 2012, 2015, 2020 and 2021.
On the fortieth anniversary of the last triumph, Bilbao is again close to breaking the curse - last night, in an unforgettable match and in the hell of the new "San Mames", they defeated their old and famous rival Barcelona (4:2), and until the end, possible rivals for the trophy will be Sociedad, Mallorca and better from tonight's quarter-final between Atletico Madrid and Sevilla.
It seems that the time has come for Ernesto Valverde's boys to consign the great generation led by Javier Clemente during the eighties to history.
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