Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Man Utd (Agg. 5-3) – Red Devils Crash Out Of Europe As Brilliant Basques Blitz United (Photos & Highlights)

Alan Duffy

15th, March 2012

9 Comments

By Alan Duffy

Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Manchester United – Europa League – 15th March 2012

Manchester United crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday after being beaten 2-1 away at Athletic Bilbao. To be fair, United were thoroughly outplayed by the Spaniards, something Sir Alex Ferguson even admitted after the game.

Lanky Spanish international Fernando “Two L’s” Llorente opened the scoring on 23 minutes courtesy of a superb volley after another star of the show, Iker Muniain, had already hit the post on 14 minutes.

The Red Devils struggled throughout the game against the slick passing of the Basque side, and just after the hour mark, Bilbao made it 2-0 (and 5-2 on aggregate) when Oscar De Marcos fired home.

Wayne Rooney did salvage some pride for United late on, with a magnificent curling effort, but ultimately the Premier League leaders were outclassed by the Spaniards.

At least Ferguson’s men can now focus solely on the Premier League title.

Photos…

Highlights…

Photos: PA

Posted in Europa League, Man Utd

Share this article: Email

9 Comments

  1. Nick Sincere says:

    Looks like Barcelona isn’t the only team MU has to catch up too. Maybe La Liga is superior to the Premier League after all, even if it is only a two horse race.

  2. Mr. Sparkle says:

    A great day for football.

  3. Sir Alex says:

    …we suck… and we are bankrupt….

  4. Rob says:

    Hold on, did Man Utd go through 90 minutes without getting a penalty?

  5. Raul says:

    What the fuck happened

  6. Irfan says:

    I’ve always gotten the feeling the writers here were ABUs.

  7. Stewart says:

    What happened was very simple. It was a misunderstanding by the deluded Spanish. Athletic, who can only sign players from the Basque region, had not been told that you can only play football if you are paid eye watering amounts of cash.

    They hadn’t heard that football is all about money. They thought it was about enthusiasm and skill. They thought it was about playing for their native club. That’s where they made their big mistake.

  8. KKK says:

    The result was rascit…

  9. jojo says:

    this is the work of bielsa, that guy is damn genius. remember chile 2010?

Leave a Reply to Raul