Oihan Sancet’s treble exorcises Athletic’s penalty pain against Girona | Sid Lowe

Paulo Gazzaniga’s hat-trick of penalty saves was fresh in the mind but Bilbao ran out comfortable victors at San Mamés

Paulo Gazzaniga rapped his studs against a post, tapped his fingertips against the crossbar and flashed the smile that broke so many hearts. In the final minutes before Athletic Club faced Girona on Saturday afternoon, Ernesto Valverde was asked who would take the penalties and gave an answer almost as loaded as the question: “Only one thing’s certain,” the coach said, “it won’t be me.” Less than an hour later, it had actually happened, which maybe it had to, another man standing before a screen inviting that guy back into their lives. So now here they were again, Iñaki Williams on the spot with the ball under his arm, Girona’s goalkeeper a few yards away wearing a look so knowing, it had a PhD.

Oh, he knew. They all did: the 48,261 people in San Mamés stands, the 22 on the pitch, everyone on the bench. Williams, especially. The last time he had faced Gazzaniga, four months earlier, had hit him hard, the striker insisting he felt responsible for a 2-1 defeat. “This can’t happen,” he said, but it had. At 1-1, Gazzaniga had saved his penalty and that wasn’t the half of it: he had already stopped Alex Berenguer’s penalty and when he was spotted off the line this time, Athletic allowed to try for a third time, Williams asked Ander Herrera to take it instead – so Gazzaniga saved that too, a unique hat-trick completed before Cristhian Stuani scored Girona’s 99th-minute winner.

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