Athletic Bilbao President Josu Urrutia says his club will be “delighted” to take on Barcelona in their own back yard in the final of the Copa del Rey.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has made the decision to hold the game at the Camp Nou and Urrutia is under no illusions about the task facing the Basques.
“We’ll be delighted to go to Barcelona after the RFEF made it clear we could not use the Santiago Bernabeu,” he told El Correo.
“Everyone has their preferences and Barca defended theirs. They have a great team, one that beat us at San Mames despite us playing well, and they defeated us in two recent finals at the Vicente Calderon and Mestalla with relative ease.”
Nevertheless, Urrutia stressed he is expecting an exciting game this time around in a competition Los Leones have not won since 1984, when they beat Barcelona 1-0 at the Bernabeu.
“The upside to this is that we have another final to play and another chance to win a title, while the history of football, and that of Athletic, is full of stories like this.
“We’ll practically be able to take the whole of San Mames to Barcelona,” said Urrutia, whose club have been allocated around 40,000 tickets.
