Athletic Club 0-3 Man Utd: 3 talking points as Amorim's Red Devils show ruthless side | OneFootball

Manchester United have firmly put one foot into this season’s Europa League final after sweeping to victory in the first leg of their last four encounter with Athletic Club.

At San Mames in Bilbao, the venue for the final later this month, United stunned the home crowd with the kind of ruthless performance that has seldom been seen from them in 2024/25, but typically been saved for Europe when it has come out.

Three first half goals did the damage for Athletic Club, who would have been hoping to go on and lift the trophy on home turf, with defender Daniel Vivian also dismissed for the hosts during that period.

Casemiro handed United the lead, after which Bruno Fernandes scored twice, all before the break. It could have been more, hitting the woodwork twice and forcing the home goalkeeper in several saves.

How the game unfolded

United ultimately set their stall out early, with Alejandro Garnacho’s disallowed strike just five minutes in perhaps a sign of what was to come. The Argentine winger had the ball in the net, but a flag was raised for offside and a VAR check confirmed the on-field decision.

Then came a spell of Athletic pressure, as Andre Onana saved from Alex Berenguer, before Yuri Berchiche and Inaki Williams each saw headers miss the target. United defender Victor Lindelof, on course to leave the club in summer, then played the hero as he blocked a goal-bound shot from Berenguer just in front of the line as the game neared its quarter mark.

Having admirably survived the Bilbao onslaught, United made their hosts pay for not taking advantage. Casemiro broke the deadlock after half an hour with a close-range header, but plenty of credit goes to Harry Maguire for the searching ball into the box flicked on by Manuel Ugarte.

United had VAR to thank when the lead was quickly doubled. The referee declined to award a penalty in real time when Vivian knocked Rasmus Hojlund off balance, but pointed to the spot and produced a red card for the defender after consulting the pitch-side monitor.

Fernandes converted from the spot and United, against ten players, were suddenly cruising.

Patrick Dorgu almost made it 3-0 in the closing stages of the first half, denied by a strong save, moments before Fernandes actually did. Hojlund battled for the ball in Athletic territory, which saw it pop to Ugarte, whose instinctive flick put the captain through on goal. He kept his composure to finish beyond the helpless Julen Agirrezabala to put United firmly in control, and in dreamland.

It could quickly have been four as well, Noussair Mazraoui striking the crossbar from the edge of the box in first half stoppage time.

Into the second half and Athletic fumed that things weren’t evened up in terms of numbers when VAR checked a potential foul and red card offence on Maguire for stopping isolated striker Maroan Sannedi. The referee didn’t act and VAR okayed it, but the home side were so incensed that substitute goalkeeper Unai Simon was yellow carded for his protestations.

3-0 down and seemingly on the way to crashing out of a competition they hoped to win, Athletic lost their heads. Yeray Alvarez was carded for hacking down Garnacho and the best chances kept coming for United, as Agirrezabala saved from Casemiro, who also headed against the post a minute later.

Blunt in attack and increasingly desperate, Euro 2024 hero Nico Williams searched for a penalty by throwing himself to ground in the box. Meanwhile, at the other end, Agirrezabala was keeping the score-line down by denying Fernandes a would-be hat-trick, and then Garnacho, moments apart.

Player ratings

Check out the player ratings from Athletic Club vs Man Utd here.

Final within reach

Man Utd could be back at San Mames for the final / ANDER GILLENEA/GettyImages

United have a 3-0 buffer ahead of the second leg at Old Trafford next week. Ruben Amorim will expect his side to approach that game as if the tie is still level and build on it, but it makes them heavy favourites to progress to the final, back in Bilbao on 21 May.

Having won this trophy for the first time ever against Ajax in 2017, and returning to the final against Villarreal in 2021 but losing on penalties, chances are they could face Tottenham Hotspur this time around. Spurs are 3-1 up on aggregate in the other semi-final against Bodo/Glimt.

The all-English Europa League final saw Chelsea prevail over Arsenal in Baku in 2019. The only final contested by two English clubs also involved Spurs, the inaugural UEFA Cup final, way back in 1972 against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Two-legged, Spurs won 3-1 on aggregate.

Better suited to Europe?

United scored more goals (three) in one half of football than Athletic Club had conceded (two) in all their previous European home games combined this season.

They’ve only scored two Premier League goals in five domestic games since the start of April. And yet, it’s now been 14 goals in the last four Europa League outings, including the second leg of the last 16 against Real Sociedad and both quarter-final legs against Lyon.

As it sits, this team simply seems far better suited to performing in European competition.

That isn’t much of a consolation for Ruben Amorim, even if it significantly raises the likelihood of lifting a trophy in his first season at the club and securing Champions League qualification. He, his staff and the club hierarchy, still have an awful lot of work to do to make sure that United can also better compete domestically as soon as next season.

Minutes for returning players

Amad Diallo is back / ANDER GILLENEA/GettyImages

Amad Diallo made his long-awaited return from injury off the bench after being ruled out since February. That is a huge boost with four weeks of the season still to play, given the form he was in at the time he was unfortunately sidelined.

Matthijs de Ligt similarly appeared as a substitute, having been absent not quite as long, while Mason Mount and Luke Shaw also continued to build their match sharpness here.