Champions League<\/a> qualification next season, where they sit fourth and six points clear in the top five.<\/p>\nThey’re back in Spanish league action on Sunday as they take on rivals Real Sociedad in the Basque derby looking to move to within four points of third-placed Atletico Madrid and a win would see them move five points ahead of Villarreal.<\/p>\n
Bilbao have to overturn a three-goal deficit at Old Trafford, if they are to achieve playing the Europa League final at their home ground.<\/p>\n
But with the semi-final on the horizon and a huge encounter in the context of their league campaign, Valverde admitted that the focus is on Sunday’s showdown.<\/p>\n
“We have a very important game tomorrow,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’re approaching it as what it is. We have to take into account the efforts of the players and how they’re feeling.<\/p>\n
“Then we have four days until Thursday, but we’re not thinking about the next game, but about tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
On the second-leg against United, asked whether he remembers any three-goal turnarounds in competitions, he added: “I don’t know, I’d have to look it up.<\/p>\n
“I don’t remember any, maybe you do.<\/p>\n
“Last year Olympiacos came back from a 1-4 deficit maybe…<\/p>\n
“We came back from a 0-3 deficit in the same season at home against Osasuna and Betis, who then drew with us.<\/p>\n
“Not at home, not away. But you have to try things.”<\/p>\n
Sign up to our Man Utd newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United and Athletic Bilbao are both in respective league action on Sunday 10:33, 04 May 2025Updated 10:34,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,423,26709,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-73583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-united-fc","13":"tag-manchester-united-fc-team-news","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114449040361610971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Athletic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_GettyImages-2213004662.jpg\")
Athletic Bilbao manager Ernesto Valverde has dismissed rotation talk ahead of the Manchester United Europa League second-leg.(Image: Photo by Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n