Athletic Bilbao starting XI
Aglirrezabala; Gorosabel, Alvarez, Nunez, Berchiche; Galarreta, Jauregizar; Djalo, Gomez, Berenguer; Sannadi
Man Utd starting XI
Onana; Lindelof, Maguire, Yoro; Mazraoui, Ugarte, Casemiro, Dorgu; Fernandes, Garnacho; Hojlund
Last time out
Manchester United have firmly put one foot in the Europa League final after tearing Athletic Bilbao apart in the first leg of their thrilling semis.
Casemiro nodded the visitors in front off the back of some Lamine Yamal-esque silky skills on the wing from Harry Maguire.
Things then went from bad to worse for the hosts as Dani Vivian pulled Rasmus Hojlund down in the box which led to a red card and a coolly dispatched Bruno Fernandes penalty.
And Fernandes then grabbed his second and United’s third of the night to give them a commanding lead going into tonight’s match.
Hell-evator
Athletic Bilbao have suffered further woes ahead of their clash with Man Utd
The Champions League-chasing Basques were hammered 3-0 at San Mames last week, leaving them with it all to do at Old Trafford in the Europa League.
Should they achieve a miracle comeback, they will play the Europa League final against Bodo/Glimt or Tottenham at their own stadium.
But boss Ernesto Valverde revealed that things took a farcical turn at the weekend.
He said: “How is the team? I saw it very well.
“We had a difficult match against Real Sociedad and a mishap.
“Nine players were trapped in the lift, which had a capacity of eight people.
“But we got them out before the match and managed to earn a draw.”
Rio Recovery
Rio Ferdinand is set to miss Manchester United’s Europa League clash with Athletic Bilbao after being struck down with illness.
Ferdinand, 46, took to social media on Wednesday with a selfie from his hospital bed.
He was due to be in Paris to cover PSG vs Arsenal’s second leg in the Champions League.
But Ferdinand could not make the trip due to his health.
Bao out
Ruben Amorim is worried about losing to Athletic Bilbao as his team have a tendency to “lose our minds”.
The manager admitted in his pre-match press conference: “We cannot control, we cannot say what is going to happen.
“There are some teams that understand the game is going to be like this.
“It can change a little bit but the story is going to be like this and you can control the narrative of the game. But we cannot do that.
“We have to face the game as one more game, to win it, I feel we need to score to go to the next round.
“We use Brentford, we are near a draw then we suffer a goal and another goal quite fast.
“We will have to suffer a bit to go to the final and we are ready to suffer.”
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