'Before we may have been scared - but not this year'

Iñaki Williams sped Athletic to a first Copa del Rey win in 40 years - tonight he can help them towards European glory

- Sid Lowe

Iñaki Williams, the fastest footballer in town, is accelerating again. The more the images come, the quicker he goes, flying through faces, flashbacks and feelings, everything they did and can still do. "It's madness," he says, eyes sparkling, the words chasing each other out, emotion building. And then the Athletic Bilbao winger pauses and laughs. "The other day they came to do tests. The cardiologist started to talk about it. He says: 'That was wonderful; wow, the gabarra... And just him mentioning it, on the screen you saw my heart beating faster."

The gabarra is a barge. Only that's not all: there is something almost mythical about it, like a legend passed through generations.

In an expression of Athletic's identity, another idiosyncrasy of a unique club, the club's trophies are celebrated by pulling the gabarra up the Nervión river with the players on board, or so they had been endlessly told, black and white pictures adorning the walls of seemingly every bar. Then, last April, they finally saw it for themselves, Williams leading them on board holding the Copa del Rey. It was the first time in 40 years. More than a million fans lined the river to see it: more people with them in Bilbao than live there.

"I couldn't describe what I felt," Williams says. "It was a gorgeous day, like destiny had written it. I was holding the cup. 'Bloody hell, lads, look what we've gone and done.' Kids, old people, mothers, fathers. Everyone in red and white, crying. Every face was happiness. I've never felt anything like it.

I think of the generations who fought to experience that, and we did. To be in that team, to lift the cup 40 years later is incredible. And now we're at the gates of a European final."