Passing San Mames, MU will have an advantage in the second leg

Athletic Bilbao is MU's biggest rival in the Europa League this season. This team is currently ranked 4th in La Liga (Spain), has a very high-quality squad with top stars such as striker Oihan Sancet (Spanish, scored 17 goals), the Williams brothers, Inaki and Nico...

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The Basque team is also in impressive form, having lost only two matches since the beginning of March in La Liga (winning three and drawing three). In the Europa League, they reached the semi-finals after finishing second in the group stage, eliminating AS Roma in the round of 16 and Rangers (Scotland) in the quarter-finals. Obviously, Athletic Bilbao is slightly better than MU at the moment.

MU is going through a season of decline in all aspects, and only has the goal of Europa League to strive for. Coach Amorim has proactively focused all his efforts on the "Red Devils" in this arena. However, all of this coach's solutions have not been as effective as expected. MU just had a disappointing 1-1 draw with Bournemouth in round 34 of the Premier League, despite fielding their best squad in the hope of finding a positive result to create momentum before meeting Athletic Bilbao away.

The bright spot for MU was striker Hojlund who scored after a very long time without scoring, equalizing 1-1 in the 90+6 minute to help MU regain 1 point against Bournemouth. Otherwise, MU's playing style has not had any breakthrough, making the fans of this team always nervous.

It should also be noted that in the 4 previous matches against Athletic Bilbao in European Cups, MU has only won 1 match at this opponent's stadium (with a score of 3-0) since 1957. The remaining 3 matches were all lost, including 2 matches at San Mames and 1 match at Old Trafford. The two most recent matches between the two teams were in the round of 16 of the Europa League in 2012, when Athletic Bilbao won 3-2 in the first leg at Old Trafford and 2-1 in the second leg at San Mames.

So this is a huge challenge for coach Amorim and his team. Athletic Bilbao's determination is also huge, because this year's Europa League final will be held at their San Mames stadium on May 22 (Vietnam time).

Difficulties surround MU

In addition to their very unstable performance, MU also has 2 recent injuries, Diogo Dalot (calf) and Joshua Zirkzee (hamstring), who may have to miss the rest of the season. The "Red Devils" of Manchester hope to have the return of Amad Diallo, Toby Collyer and Matthijs de Ligt, but the ability of these 3 players to play is still uncertain.

Coach Amorim only hopes that captain Bruno Fernandes and key players like Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire, goalkeeper Onana, midfielders Ugarte, Casemiro, Dorgu, along with Garnacho and Hojlund can maintain their best form to help the home team overcome difficulties and achieve a favorable result in the first leg.

Meanwhile, Athletic Bilbao benefited greatly from not having to play since April 24, due to the clash with the Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Real Madrid last weekend, so they had a break to wait for the meeting with MU. In the Europa League this season, Athletic Bilbao won all 6 home matches, scoring 14 goals and conceding only 2 goals, a statistic that could make coach Amorim's team tremble when stepping onto the San Mames field.

At the same time, the remaining English team in this tournament, Tottenham, will meet an easy opponent, Bodo/Glimt (Norway), at home, also in the first leg of the Europa League semi-finals.