Williams brothers fire Athletic past Barca into Copa semifinals
BILBAO, Spain: Inaki Williams raced back from Africa to face Barcelona in the Copa del Rey and sent Athletic Bilbao into the semi-finals by scoring a crucial goal in their 4-2 extra-time triumph on Wednesday.
The Ghana forward played on Monday for his country but made it home to help Athletic vanquish the Spanish champions and pile more pressure on their coach Xavi Hernandez.
Athletic struck inside the first minute through Gorka Guruzeta, but Barcelona turned the game around with goals from Robert Lewandowski and 16-year-old starlet Lamine Yamal.
Oihan Sancet netted early in the second half to take the game to extra-time and then teed up substitute Inaki Williams to put the Basques ahead.
His brother Nico Williams added the finishing touch late on to complete a superb night for the hosts, and a miserable one for Barca, despite a battling performance.
“There was a lack of concentration, individual errors,” admitted Xavi.
“It’s a game of errors and we are not minimising them.”
The coach said he was calm despite the defeat and had bigger fish to fry.
“We’ll go for La Liga and the Champions League, the most important trophies remain, and we’ll fight for them like we did today,” Xavi added.
“The fact Inaki was here was a huge morale boost,” coach Ernesto Valverde told TVE.
“He’s a player who is always decisive for us and who instills fear in opponents.”
“(Inaki) is a phenomenon, he’s one of the souls of the team and he showed it again,” said Athletic defender Dani Vivian.
Athletic players stood before their proud fans after the game in a line and exchanged applause in mutual celebration.
“This is Athletic, from before we even got to the stadium, (look at) how they pushed us on,” added Vivian.