Man Utd 4

Athletic Bilbao 1

United are going back to Bilbao to play Spurs in the Europa League final after disposing of Bilbao 7-1 on aggregate. The 3-0 lead from the first leg proved too much of a task for the valiant Bilbao players who fought hard to try and find a route back into the tie and lead United till the 72 minute after taking a lead on 30 minutes with a well struck goal from outside the box after a Maguire poor clearance.

United were poor in the first hour or so. So much so that I was sweating every time Bilbao came forward after taking the lead. A second goal for Bilbao would have seen us go into panic mode.

The back 3 were struggling with only Yoro showing some composure and Ugarte and Casemiro were struggling to create anything and only focusing on breaking up the Bilbao attacks. Garnacho had a couple of opportunities on the counter but the boy must improve his finishing as he has missed so many chances this season.

Amorim made 3 changes on 62 minutes, bringing on Mount, Amad and Mainoo and the match turned into our favour within 10 minutes. Amad starting having a go at the tired Bilbao defenders and Mount and Mainoo seemed fresh and active. On 72 minutes, an enterprising run from Yoro saw him squeezing the ball into the path of Mount who reminder me of the famous Macheda goal with his sweet turn and finish. 1-1. A sigh of relief!

Bilbao realised that it was over and practically threw in the towel. 8 minutes after the equaliser, Casemiro headed in from a Bruno free kick and the party could officially being. Minutes later, Hojlund could not miss following great work by Amad and made it 3-1 and Mount got his second with a long range effort with the Bilbao keeper out of position to round it off in injury time. Happy to see Mount play with a smile on his face – he still has time to prove me wrong about his abilities and I hope he does.

The subs worked – and how. Bilbao were torn apart in the last 20 minutes and we ended up winning 4-1 – a score line that I never thought possible with 25 minutes to go. As Amorim said after the match, we now have to win it! Easy? Not at all – even if we played the whole match against 10 men, we would still find a way to make it difficult for ourselves. But I have faith….there is this thing going on in my head…and it will stay there, until the 22 May when I write the penultimate blog for this season…Numquam Moribimur!