Madrid, Jan. 12 -- Reputations are on the line on Tuesday with three games in the fourth round of Spain's Copa del Rey knockout tournament.
Athletic Club travels to play second tier Cultural Leonesa after last week's 5-0 Spanish Supercup thrashing raised serious questions over the fitness and commitment of the side that won the Copa in 2024 and that finished last season fourth in La Liga.
The Basque side was very poor in Jeddah against Barcelona and needs to react to avoid talk of crisis at the club. Tuesday's visit to second tier Cultural sees coach Ernesto Valverde come up against home coach Jose Angel 'Cuco' Ziganda, who played alongside him in the Athletic attack in the early and mid-1990's.
Ziganda had a successful spell as Athletic...