Athletic Bilbao Europa League Home Match Talk & Coverage

[E.S.]

[18] How do you solve a problem like Europe? ... Fergie wonders if its time for a re-think

“We have had a bad year in Europe,”

“We conceded three against Basel, two against Benfica, another three against Bilbao and two to Ajax. That tells its own story.

“Maybe it is just one of those years where we are having to re-stock and assess how we should approach games at home.”

[E.S.]

[22] De Gea thinks some of his team were asleep last night

"For the third Athletic goal, the one Muniain scored, the defence was asleep. Rafael had fallen asleep,"

"Some of my team-mates were a bit sleepy at Old Trafford. We played really badly and Athletic that will beat you if you make it easy for them.

"We expected Athletic to be very strong and they were. We’ll go to the San Mames Stadium to give it another go. Athletic Bilbao are probably the best team to visit our stadium this season."

[Red News]

Atlethic Club manager praises United for only losing by one to his side!

Marcelo Bielsa


"We have built to press the ball on the pitch - never stop running. The difference is we are playing big competitions all the time. I think it's an indication of how good our opponents are that they didn't need to create too many chances to get two goals. We probably were better in general play than United but it's a compliment to our opponents and expression of their quality that we could only beat them by a deficit of one."

[Red News]

Alex Ferguson on Chris Smalling's injury re-opening on Thursday night

"His stitches came open in the first half. We thought we'd patched them up at half time but they came open again."

[Red News]

MUFC vs Athletic Club Opta Match Stats

Manchester United Team Statistics Athletic de Bilbao
2 Goals 3
1 1st Half Goals 1
5 Shots on Target 11
4 Shots off Target 8
5 Blocked Shots 6
3 Corners 8
15 Fouls 20
0 Offsides 2
0 Yellow Cards 1
0 Red Cards 0
84.6 Passing Success 86.7
19 Tackles 18
100 Tackles Success 66.7
42.2 Possession 57.8
45.8 Territorial Advantage 54.2
422 Total Passes 592
18 Total Crosses 17
131 Lost Balls 128
59 Recoveries 53
38.9 1st Half Poss. 61.1
45.9 2nd Half Poss. 54.1