Editing Athletic Bilbao (section)

=== Iribar and the first UEFA final ===
[[File:Aankomst Atletico Bilbao op Schiphol vlnr Dani, trainer Aguirre en doelman , Bestanddeelnr 929-9172.jpg|thumb|Dani, coach Koldo Aguirre and Iribar in 1978.]]
The 1960s were dominated by Real Madrid, and Atlético went through a few years of transition in which the only figure that shone was goalkeeper [[José Ángel Iribar]], who became one of the club's greatest legends along with Zarra. Due to the team's bad form, the fans used to constantly repeat the phrase ''Juegan Iribar y diez más'' ([[English language|en]]: ''Iribar and ten more are playing''). The situation improved when in [[1969 Copa del Generalísimo Final|1969]] Atlético won a Copa del Generalísimo and was runner-up in LaLiga in the [[1969–70 La Liga|1969–70]] season. The main stars of this team −in addition to Iribar− were the scorer [[Fidel Uriarte]] (winner of a [[Pichichi Trophy]]) and the winger [[Txetxu Rojo]].

The 1970s were not much better, with only another single Copa del Generalísimo win in [[1973 Copa del Generalísimo Final|1973]]. In December 1976, before a game against Real Sociedad, Iribar and Sociedad captain [[Inaxio Kortabarria]] carried out the [[Ikurriña]] (the [[Basque nationalism|Basque nationalist]] flag), and placed it ceremonially on the centre-circle – this was the first public display of the flag since the death of [[Francisco Franco]]. By then the Franco regime had also ended and the club reverted to using the name ''Athletic''. In 1977, the club reached [[1977 UEFA Cup Final|the final]] of the [[UEFA Europa League|UEFA Cup]] after eliminating teams like [[AC Milan]] or [[FC Barcelona]], among others, and only losing on [[Away goals rule|away goals]] to [[Juventus FC|Juventus]]. They also reached the Copa del Rey final, which they lost to [[Real Betis]] on penalties (Iribar missed the decisive one, which gave the Sevillians the victory), and reached third position in LaLiga. Despite these defeats, this is remembered as one of the best teams in the history of Athletic Bilbao, which included historical players of the club such as Iribar, Rojo, [[Agustín Guisasola|Guisasola]], [[José Ramón Alexanko|Alexanko]], [[Andoni Goikoetxea|Goikoetxea]], [[Javier Irureta|Irureta]], [[Dani (footballer, born 1951)|Dani]] or [[Carlos (footballer, born 1948)|Carlos]] (last player to win the [[Pichichi Trophy]] with the club).