Athletic Bilbao coach Valverde proud winning Copa del Rey in thriller: Incredible!

Athletic Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde was proud leading them to Saturday's Copa del Rey glory.

After the scores were level at 1-1, the final went to penalties. Julen Agirrezabala was the hero in Athletic's goal as Mallorca were denied twice in the shootout.

Valverde said, "This is incredible, this title has no comparison with any. You just have to see how the field was, what this means for the fans, the years we had been looking for it... In the end, in the penalties, where they are specialists we have achieved this victory.

"We suffered because they played long balls, with a lot of dispute, they are strong in individual duels... As things progressed, we shook off that way of playing. We knew that if the game was long we would be a team that "He runs a lot and we would have options. Until the first half hour we had a bad time.

"In the second half we already had the idea of risking everything. The goal made us go forward. We could have scored the second, but we were exposed and they had their options."

On Agirrezabala, he added: "We are lucky to have Unai (Simon) and Julen, who is a young goalkeeper who has played in very committed games like the semi-final against Atltico, Barcelona... We are happy that he saved that penalty."