I thought these guys were good. 4th in La Liga, don't concede at home in Europe. What happened?

🤣🤣.

Of course I'm talking a bit of nonsense as we probably got away with it a little but you know, who gives a shit? We need this more than they do when looking at our season so we'll take these however which way they come.

Never in our wildest dreams did we think that United would go to Bilbao and actually win let alone win 3-0! Ruben Amorim certainly didn't, as much as he may say they did.

But what a crazy game, another crazy game for United in the Europa League. There's something about us in this tournament man, I'm telling you.

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With the way the game started though, no one could've thought that it would've ended the way it did. Football, eh?

Those first 15-20 minutes, United were poor. We were so sloppy on the ball, took too many touches, were too slow in possession and just invited the press which is something Bilbao didn't need an invitation for. Amorim spoke about their aggressive press in his presser yet it seems that his players didn't get the memo.

Countless times his side gave the ball away in stupid areas that caused us so many problems. Onana had to come up with a smart save and we really should've been 1-0 down as Inaki Williams missed an absolute sitter with his header.

We were lucky. And not for the first time.

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Ruben's Reds were still shaky after that period even though we did grow into it a little more. As ever with his team though, one could never rule them out and expect the unexpected.

Up stepped centre-back turned striker now turned winger in HARRY MAGUIRE as he showed Garnacho how it's done down the right. He channeled his inner Ronaldo as he breezed past the Bilbao defender before putting in a delightful cross. Ugarte, who was having a terrible game until this point, flicked the ball on at the front post before the man who has had one of the best resurgences in football in recent years, Casemiro heads home at the far post to put United in the lead against the run of play.

Didn't see that coming but we weren't complaining.

And btw, Maguire > Yamal. 🤷‍♂️

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United then grew in confidence which led to the controversial moment of the game and perhaps tie.

A brilliant cross by Mazraoui from the right was somehow missed by Hojlund although with him, one wouldn't be surprised. Yet the Dane was adamant that he was held back causing him to not get on the end of the cross which would've resulted in a tap-in to make it 2-0.

VAR expectedly intervened and after some time, informed the referee to go to the monitor. We all know what this means.

He did eventual overturn his decision and then sent the Bilbao player Dani Vivan off! That really put a cat amongst the pigeons.

Athletic Club and their stadium were understandably outraged but when looking back on it, was the referee wrong? He did deny Hojlund a clear goal scoring opportunity while not trying to play the ball.

The only other problem was that Garnacho did hand the ball in the buldup to that penalty. The officials seemed to have not taken that into account but again, we ain't complaining.

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Bruno of course scored and we were 2-0 up. Absolute scenes!

Then, it got even better as the skipper made it 3-0 just 8 minutes later! D R E A M L A N D!

United take a completely unforeseen 3-0 lead into the break with many thinking that there is a chance here to put the tie to bed.

Well, almost everyone as it appeared that the players themselves thought that things were done and dusted by how casually they took things.

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Amorim's side came out in that second period in cruise control and never really peppered Bilbao's goal as much as they should've done. A very flat and boring second 45 from United when we all thought that this was time to go for the throat.

3-0 is still a strong scoreline but 4 or 5 would've really put us through.

Yet Amorim will still be beaming from ear to ear. 3-0 at Bilbao is definitely not a result we can moan about as most (like myself) probably didn't even predict a win. It may not have come in the manner that we thought but we take what we get.

That opening period will not have filled the manager with much confidence though, because his players looked panicky from the get-go. Until that opener, there was nothing about our play that was actually that good.

After the first goal and then the sending off however, it really was all United.

But again, despite being 3-0 up at this point, Amorim wouldn't have been happy at his side not going for the kill as Bilbao are still well in this. A couple more goals would've probably seen them off. That lack of ruthlessness could be a problem next week.

Let's hope not.

However, other than the win, the MUFC boss would've been happy with the performances of his captain and Casemiro, two players who looked to have understood the assignment of the way to play and needing to score as many as possible. Ugarte grew into things as he got 2 assists as well. Maguire was solid again and to have the likes of Amad and De Ligt back will have been the cherry on the cake.

A night that couldn't have gone any better 👌.

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Ratings

Onana - 6

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Lindelof - 5

Maguire - 6.5

Yoro - 6

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Mazraoui - 6

Casemiro - 8 MOTM

Ugarte - 6.5

Dorgu - 5.5

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Bruno - 7.5

Garnacho - 5

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Hojlund - 6

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De Ligt - 6

Shaw - 6

Mount - 5

Mainoo - 6

Amad - 6

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Ruben Amorim - 7

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Final Thoughts

Never saw that coming at all and I'm not complaining about how we got there. We had some good perfomrnaces and some not so good ones and the returns of Amad and De Ligt are almost as good as the win.

However, I am still not entirely confident in the second leg. Yes we are at home and have a 3-0 lead but I just don't trust this team.

On top of us shooting ourselves in the foot, maybe the ref is dodgy in that game and gives us a red card early on 🤷‍♂️. I would've just been a lot more at ease had we scored at least 2 more goals which we should've done. Then I would think to book the tickets for the final.

But for this night and the next week, we can enjoy this win and take the confidence into next Thursday.

Let's keep going 👊.

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Casemiro was class in Man Utd's 3-0 win over Athletic Club | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)