Athletic and Levante recorded in San Mamés that they are author teams. The hand of Marcelino and Paco López set the tone for the match and left the tie open for the second leg. The Asturian and the one from Silla shared the honors, the merits and also the goals. One part for each. Paco López, a disciple of Marcelino when they met in Vila-real, handcuffed the master’s lions. Levante made the core their own, with Bardhi, Radoja, De Frutos and Melero setting the tone and the first goal. But it is said that the devil knows more as an old man than as a devil and Marcelino, a saint as a person, as is Paco, changed fate with his changes to rest.
Marcelino, who is not used to moving the hornet’s nest of changes with such haste, put Berenguer, Unai and Vesga in. With them Athletic resurrected and Cárdenas appeared, To which only Iñigo Martínez surpassed the impeccable shot. Cárdenas is very much to blame that Levante have come so far in this Cup. Thanks to the good work of the goalkeeper, Melero’s goal – his injury was by far the worst that happened in San Mamés – gives Levante a slight head start on the way back to the Ciutat de València, a stadium that has seen theirs play from Third to First and even the Europa League… but never a Cup semi-final. Perhaps the most important game ever played there by his Levante. Take away the maybe. How great it is to be small, what a pity that its people cannot be that day in the Orriols enclosure and what merit has the club chaired by Quico Catalán whatever happens in the round of the semifinal.