Athletic Bilbao vs Manchester United prediction: Spanish side to take first leg advantage | OneFootball

Manchester United travel to Athletic Bilbao on Thursday looking to take the first step towards a return to the Spanish city later this month for the Europa League final.

For Bilbao, this is a great chance to compete for the trophy on home turf, but in United they are up against something of the unknown, because you just don’t know which team will show up.

Football betting sites are backing the Spanish sides over two legs, with them second favourites to lift the trophy at 21/10, just behind Spurs, who are 15/8 to be celebrating in Bilbao.

Their home form makes it no surprise that the odds are so short on winning the tournament at their home ground, with six wins out of six, 14 goals scored and only two conceded.

The only teams to score at San Mamés are Viktoria Plzen and Roma, while Rangers were the only team to stop them scoring when they secured a goalless draw in the first leg of the quarter-final at Ibrox.

United have scored in all 12 of their Europa League games and are unbeaten, drawing six and losing six on their way to their fourth semi-final appearance and first since reaching the final in 2021, before losing 12-11 on penalties to Villarreal.

They have won the competition once, back in 2017, when goals from Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan earned them a 2-0 win over Ajax.

This is only Bilbao’s second appearance at this stage of the competition and first since they reached the final for the only time back in 2012, when they were beaten 3-0 by Atletico Madrid in Bucharest.

Athletic Bilbao vs Manchester United betting: Home advantage to count for Bilbao

United go into the game with just one win in their last seven games, which is hardly the form of a team going for silverware. That win came in the quarter-final at Old Trafford when they came from 4-2 down to beat Lyon 5-4 in extra time.

Their league form, which has seen them fail to win back-to-back games all season, leaves them 14th in the Premier League, 43 points behind the leaders Liverpool and 21 off the top four.

They needed a 96th-minute equaliser from Rasmus Hojlund to earn them a point and a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth at the weekend.

Bilbao on the other hand are fourth in La Liga, 16 points behind leaders Barcelona and go into the game unbeaten in their last six at home and with three wins from their last four in all competitions.

Their only defeat came at the home of Real Madrid, who needed a 90th-minute winner from Federico Valverde to give them a 1-0 win.

Betting sites are backing Bilbao for the win at 21/20 and you can get 29/10 for a United win and 12/5 on a draw.

If United are to make it through the tie, they might need to keep this one tight and hope they can enjoy one last night to remember at Old Trafford, in the second leg, but it’s not going to be easy.

The two sides last met in the competition during the 2011/12 season, in the round of 16, with Athletic claiming a 5-3 aggregate win on their way to reaching the final.

United captain Bruno Fernandes has scored 25 goals in the Europa League, which is more than any other Portuguese player in history. He has also been United’s hero too many times to mention.

He is one of the very few players who have impressed this season with 17 goals and 17 assists in his 50 appearances so far.

He is United’s top scorer in the Europa League with five and the Premier League with eight, and that highlights the issues the Reds have had in front of goal.

They have scored just 39 in 34 league games this season in the league, and conceded 47, but in this competition, they have scored 28, which may be more of a reflection of the standard of the competition.

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