Óscar de Marcos and Mikel Balenziaga accompanied to Iker Muniain and Ernesto Valverde in the presentation of Athletic Club bargea photography book that commemorates the cup that the rojiblanco team raised in the Cartuja in April 2024. The first was in charge, next to Muniain, to raise the expected trophy to heaven; While the second had to do the game on television because at that time it was part of the squad of Deportivo de la Coruña. “All the players who were not in that final feel participants in the road, but not at the achievement. I have won that cup final as an amateur and I am super proud, ”said Balenziaga.
However, although one has the cup in their record and the other does not share the same reflection on that dream triumph against Mallorca: they believe that It was a turning point for an Athletic that, since then, began to believe among the best. “A path was created, a mentality of seeing us as champions because with that cup a reality became a reality and We take off a 40 -year -old slab ”, Balenziaga acknowledged. Therefore, neither Zumarraga nor Marcos are surprised to see those of Valverde in the current edition of the Champions League. “After the Cup final, it is the maximum that you can live in Bilbao. I also think that this year Athletic has the best team that I remember,” said Balenziaga.
In addition, De Marcos explained that, although “until the day I am going to give me envy I am not in the green of San Mamés,” On Tuesday – when the Lions will face the Arsenal of Mikel Arteta in the cathedral to Arsenal – “it will be a day to enjoy as an amateur”: “It is clear that within the locker room everything is lived in another way, but we will come to enjoy a team like the arsenal and surely the Athletic does a good role because in this costume there is always a demand and everything is always given”.
Both Marcos and Balenziaga know what the Champions League is to play, Both did it in the 2014/15 season, in which it was even this campaign the last precedent of the lions in the maximum continental competition. On that occasion, the rojiblancos agreed after bending the Naples in the previous one and ended up falling to the Europa League after finishing third parties of a group in which they coincided with the Shakhtar Donetsk Ukrainian, the batterruso Batisov and the Portuguese Porto.
