Manchester United has firmly set foot in the European League Final of the season after being achieved by the first meeting of its last meeting with Athletic Club.
In San Mames, in Bilbao, the place for the final at the end of this month, United stunned the crowd of home with the type of ruthless performance that has rarely been seen in 2024/25, but was usually saved in Europe when it has left.
Three first goals did the damage to the Athletic Club, which would have been hoping to continue and lift the trophy on the domestic grass, with the defender Daniel Vivian also fired the hosts during this period.
Casemiro handed over to United the lead, after Bruno Fernandes scored twice, all before the break. It could have been more, hit the carpentry twice and force the house goalkeeper in various savings.
As the game was deployed
The United finally marked its stop, with the strike from Alejandro Garnacho in just five minutes, maybe a sign of what had to come. The Argentine end had the ball on the net, but a flag was raised out of play and a VAR control confirmed the field’s decision.
Then came an athletic pressure spell, as Andre Onana saved Alex Berenguer, before Yuri Berchiche and Inaki Williams saw that the headers lost their goal. United Ombudsman Victor Lindelof, ongoing to leave the club in the summer, then played the hero while blocking a Berenguer goal shot just in front of the line when the game approached his fourth.
After having an admirably survived in Bilbao’s attack, United made his hosts pay for not taking advantage of. Casemiro broke the dead point after half an hour with a nearby range head, but many credits go to Harry Maguire for the search ball in the box that Manuel Ugarte used.
The United had VAR to thank when the leadership doubled quickly. The referee refused to grant a real -time penalty when Vivian struck Rasmus Hojlund out of balance, but pointed out the site and produced a red card for the defender after consulting the pitch monitor.
Fernandes became from the site and the United, against ten players, suddenly crossed.
Patrick Dorgu almost got 3-0 in the closing stages of the first half, denied by a strong savings, moments before Fernandes was really. Hojlund fought for the ball in the athletic territory, who saw her appear in Ugarte, whose instinctive blinking put the captain on the goal. He kept his compost to finish beyond the helplessness Julen Agirrezabala to firmly put United in control and Dreamland.
It could also have been four, Nousair Mazraoui struck the crossbar from the edge of the box at the stoppage time in the first half.
In the second half and Athletic smoked that things did not equal in terms of numbers when VAR checked a potential offense of the card and the red card in Maguire to stop the isolated striker Maroan Sannedi. The referee did not act and Var goes well, but the side of the house was so incense that the substitute goalkeeper, Unai Simon, loaded yellow for his protests.
3-0 going down and apparently on the way to falling from a competition they were expecting to win, Athletic lost his head. Yeray Alvarez was loaded by Garnacho and the best possibilities of coming for United, as Agirrezabala saved Casemiro, who also headed against the post a minute later.
Blunt in attack and increasingly desperate, the hero of the Euro 2024, Nico Williams, sought a penalty by throwing himself on the floor in the box. Meanwhile, on the other end, Agirrezabala was maintaining the marking line by denying Fernandes a hat-trick, and then Garnacho, a few moments.
Check out the classifications of Athletic Club VS Man UTD players here.
The United has a 3-0 buffer ahead of the second stage at Old Trafford next week. Ruben Amorim will wait for his side to approach this game as if the tie will continue with the level and get rid of, but they make the favorites strong to move forward to the final, in Bilbao on May 21.
After gaining this trophy for the first time against Ajax in 2017 and returning to the final against Villarreal in 2021, but losing penalties, it is likely that they can face Tottenham Hotspur this time. The spurs are 3-1 in the other semifinal against Bodo/Glimt.
The European League Final All-England saw that Chelsea prevailed over arsenal in Baku in 2019. The only final played by two English clubs also involved Spurs, the opening final of the UEFA Cup, in 1972 against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Spurs won by 3-1 in total.
The United scored more goals (three) in the middle of the football that the Atlético Club had awarded (two) in all its previous European matches at home combined this season.
Only two goals from the Premier League have been scored in five national games since the beginning of April. And yet, there are now 14 goals in the last four outings of the Europa League, including the second stage of the last 16 against the Royal Society and the two quarter -final legs against Lyon.
According to it, this team seems much more suitable for performing in the European competition.
It is not very consolation for Ruben Amorim, even if it significantly increases the likelihood of raising a trophy in its first season at the club and achieving the qualification of the Champions League. He, his staff and the club’s hierarchy, still have a lot of work to ensure that United can also compete better nationally as soon as next season.
Amad Diallo returned his long -awaited return from the injury to the bench after being ruled out since February. This is a great impulse with four weeks of the season yet to play, given the way it was at the moment when it was unfortunately.
Ligt’s Matthijs appeared similarly as a substitute, having been absent not so long, while Mason Mount and Luke Shaw also continued to build the sharpness of the party here.
