Live Athletic Bilbao vs Man Utd: Amad Diallo returns for Europa League semi-final
5:28PM
Preview: Another seat of the pants ride?
Good evening and welcome to live coverage of the Europa League semi-final first leg between Athletic Club and Manchester United from San Mamés in Bilbao whither Ruben Amorim's team will hope to return in 20 days time for the final. To do that the Premier League's 14th-placd club will need to knock out La Liga's fourth-placed club who, like Manchester United, are the holders of their main domestic cup.
United needed a ridiculous seven-minute turnaround in extra-time from 4-2 down against Lyon to win 5-2 in stoppage time and that seat-of-the-pants-style late spree has been a hallmark of their progress, scoring a winner in the 88th minute against Viktoria Plzen, the second minute of stoppage time against Rangers, in the 87th and first minute of stoppage time against Athletic's deadly rivals Real Sociedad and in the 88th minute of the away leg in Lyon.
By contrast Bilbao's progress had been relatively serene until they had to fight back to beat Roma in the Round of 16 4-3 and they then went on to knock out Rangers 2-0 after a goalless draw at Ibrox. The Williams' brothers ought to be back to lead the line for a club that has beaten United in three of their four previous competitive matches, lastly under Marcelo Bielsa in 2012. But Oihan Sancet, an attacking midfielder enjoying has best season with 18 goals which has earned him a call-up to the national side was injured in last week's 1-0 victory over Las Palmas and will sit this one out. Both Iñaki, 30, and the much-coveted Nico, 22, have five goals apiece in this competition and will dovetail behind Gorka Guruzeta who is a key player for Ernesto Valverde's side.
Athletic have won both of their semi-finals in this competition before, defeating Molenbeek in 1976-77 and United in 2011-12. Manchester United have lost two and won two, stretching back to the Fairs Cup defeat by Ferencvaros in 1965 followed by a victory over Celta Vigo in 2017, elimination at the hands of Sevilla in a pandemic, one-leg scramble and victory over Roma in 2021.
Amad Diallo and Matthijs de Ligt have returned to full training but it would be a shock to see them even on the bench. Toby Collyer, Ayden Heaven and Altay Bayindir are still unavailable this week while Messrs Dalot, Zirkzee and Martínez are on the long-term casualty list.
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