Athletic Club full-back Óscar de Marcos assured this Wednesday that he sees the team “convinced and prepared” for the Copa del Rey final this Saturday, against RCD Mallorca, a match that “generates butterflies in the stomach” and that they must face as if it were disputed in San Mamés.
“Carrying them as best you can… With that enthusiasm and in the end that generates butterflies in your stomach,” acknowledged one of the captains of the ‘lions’ at a press conference in Lezama, just four days before the match for the cup title. in La Cartuja.
De Marcos admitted that winning the Cup, after 15 years at the club, “would be something unique” and something he “has always dreamed of”, without forgetting those who played in five finals in the last 16 years. “Every day I think about my former teammates, many of them who have tried, some who didn’t even get to play, others who tried with me before and we didn’t succeed,” he said.
“We are passing through and we are really leaving our legacy, they left the legacy, they lived through much more complex situations so that today we can enjoy a Cup final. If this Saturday went well, they would be part of this final,” he said.
And De Marcos has already lost four Cup finals with Athletic. “In the first ones you are more unconscious and you live them in a different way, then with the passage of time you think it could be the last one, imagine yourself in this one. I try to enjoy it or that’s what I try to tell my head, to enjoy it a lot more than the previous ones, just in case it’s the last one,” he admitted.
“You don’t have to erase anything. In the end they are experiences that you live, from which you have to learn. Of course, they are hard things, but you learn from everything. It is evident that they were also complicated endings, that you live them at different times, with different ages. But I see the team convinced, prepared and eager to face it,” he analyzed.
For this reason, he stated that “the head plays a very important part” in this type of duel. “Because of the responsibility that you take on, because of the desire you have to try to win it, to please, especially if you are from Athletic, they have been waiting for it for a long time and that can play tricks on you. Mental control for this type of situation is complicated, “You have to be mentally very well prepared,” he warned for this Saturday.
Thus, he sees excitement and responsibility “on the same level.” “We all want to win it, we all put that pressure on ourselves. That’s what you have to try, get out of the way a little bit. You have to try to enjoy it, try to give your best version, and for that you have to feel comfortable on the field,” he commented. .
And one of the recipes to jump more plugged in may be to “try” to think that the game is played in San Mamés. “We have to go to Seville with the feeling that we are going to play in San Mames, that we have to try to play our game, that we have to enjoy it, that we have to go for it and leave everything on the field, that we don’t we can point out that we have not left everything on the field,” he said.
“Being a favorite in a final is complicated, because it’s one game, it’s 90 minutes. It’s true that right now the table puts us as favorites and we’re going to go with that role,” he acknowledged. “Our style is to attack, give rhythm to the game, try to reach the opponent’s goal. We don’t know what they are going to propose to us. Yes, they have a certain style throughout the year that they have been following, but we will see what we find, We will face it with our weapons,” he added.
Although De Marcos does not believe that the fact that the Cup “owes them one” will bring them closer to victory. “To win it you have to play a great game and here nobody owes anything to anyone, we are insisting, we like the Cup, we have been fighting for it for years. We have managed to make reaching the finals something that must happen and it is not like that, it is a merit of this team. It would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, what we have all been looking for for so many years,” he wished.
“We all play in the finals. All of us who are on the field, everyone who is in the stands, everyone who is at home. We are going to need everyone to be able to achieve it, we are all going to add from wherever we have to,” It ended on the fans, with thousands of people outside La Cartuja. “It’s sad, but it’s proud. That so many people go without a ticket is admirable. I wish everyone would get in and be able to cheer inside,” he concluded.