{"id":48356,"date":"2026-04-19T15:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=48356"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:04:27","slug":"sociedad-secure-copa-del-rey-triumph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=48356","title":{"rendered":"Sociedad secure Copa del Rey triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Real Sociedad edged Atletico Madrid 4-3 on penalties to win the Copa del Rey for a fourth time in the club&#8217;s history after a 2-2 draw in a gripping final on Saturday in Seville.<br \/>\nAfter Alexander Sorloth and Julian Alvarez missed from the spot for Diego Simeone&#8217;s Atletico, Pablo Marin smashed home his kick to claim victory for the Basque side.<br \/>\nAnder Barrenetxea had headed Real Sociedad ahead after just 14 seconds, with Ademola Lookman levelling for Atletico.<br \/>\nMikel Oyarzabal put the Basque side ahead from the penalty spot before the break but Alvarez rescued Atletico and forced extra time and ultimately penalties with a superb strike.<br \/>\nLa Real&#8217;s season seemed set to be one of struggle until American coach Pellegrino Matarazzo was appointed in December, and he resuscitated their campaign.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a moment to enjoy, to dream and to believe&#8230; the kid who dreamed of this&#8230; has done it,&#8221; said Real Sociedad goalkeeper Unai Marrero, who saved two penalties.<br \/>\nChampions League semi-finalists Atletico, 10-time winners of the cup, were left to lick their wounds and rue mistakes.<br \/>\n&#8220;We did everything we could, we had to row against the current from the start,&#8221; said Atletico captain Koke.\u00a0<br \/>\n&#8220;We had some chances before the end of the 90 minutes that if we had scored would have changed the story.<br \/>\n&#8220;We have to congratulate La Real, that&#8217;s life. It hurts but we have to continue.&#8221;<br \/>\nAt La Cartuja stadium it was a battle between two teams that often attack fast and direct, and Real Sociedad certainly did that, netting the quickest ever goal scored in a Copa del Rey final.<br \/>\nGoncalo Guedes scampered away down the left on to a long ball, crossing for Barrenetxea to head beyond Juan Musso before the Rojiblancos had even touched the ball.<br \/>\nSimeone&#8217;s side, who last won the competition back in 2013 near the start of his 14-year reign, wrestled their way back level through Lookman.<br \/>\nAntoine Griezmann laid off the ball to him on the edge of the box and without much on, the Nigeria international spied a route to goal and drilled into the bottom corner.<br \/>\nLookman almost created a goal for Griezmann but Real Sociedad scrambled to block the 35-year-old French forward, who is leaving Atletico at the end of the season for MLS side Orlando City.<\/p>\n<p>Atletico goalkeeper Musso, chosen ahead of the fit-again Jan Oblak after he impressed during the Slovenian&#8217;s recent injury absence, handed La Real the lead again just before the break.<br \/>\nMusso clumsily clattered Guedes fists first as the Portuguese leapt for a header and the Basque side were awarded a penalty.<br \/>\nOyarzabal, who scored from the spot when they won the 2020 edition, without their fans present because of the global pandemic, sent Musso the wrong way.<br \/>\nAfter a first half in which they struggled, Atletico began to build some pressure after the interval.<br \/>\nGriezmann lashed over and Lookman whipped a shot high and wide as La Real tried to stave off the Rojiblancos, who dominated the ball.<br \/>\nSimeone called for his battering ram, sending on Norwegian target man Sorloth to try and force a way through.<br \/>\nEventually the goal they craved came from the guile of former Manchester City striker Alvarez instead.<br \/>\nThe Argentina forward took a neat touch to spin on the edge of the box and then another to plant the ball in the top corner for his 19th goal of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Blown chances<br \/>\nWith La Real caving Johnny Cardoso should have won it for Atletico in stoppage time. The American fired a golden opening wide of the far post with just goalkeeper Unai Marrero to beat.<br \/>\nMusso made a fine save to thwart Icelandic striker Orri Oskarsson as he tried to turn home a rebound in extra time.<br \/>\nAt the other end Alvarez crashed a shot off the crossbar from long range, with both teams creating enough opportunities to win it before penalties.<br \/>\nMarrero denied both Sorloth and Alvarez on Atletico&#8217;s first two penalties, with Musso stopping one from Oskarsson to give Atletico a chance.<br \/>\nHowever Marin made no mistake with Real Sociedad&#8217;s fifth penalty to spark wild celebrations.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real Sociedad edged Atletico Madrid 4-3 on penalties to win the Copa del Rey for a fourth time in the club&#8217;s history after a 2-2 draw in a gripping final on Saturday in Seville. After Alexander Sorloth and Julian Alvarez missed from the spot for Diego Simeone&#8217;s Atletico, Pablo Marin smashed home his kick to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}