Manchester United Are Out Of Europe

Wayne Rooney

Manchester United went into this match know­ing they needed to over­turn a 3–2 defi­cit from the first leg to book their place in the UEFA Europa League Quarter Finals. But it was the Basque side that took the lead when Fernando Amore­bi­eta found Fernando Llorente who struck the ball into the far corner from 18 yards on 22 minutes.

Manchester United almost scored a mere five minutes later, how­ever, when the inform Ash­ley Young crossed the ball for the wait­ing Ryan Giggs whose power­ful header was deflec­ted over for a corner. Only eight minutes into the second half, Ath­letic Bil­bao nearly exten­ded their lead as for­ward think­ing right full­back Andoni Iraola hit just wide from close range. In the 63rd minute of the Europa League encounter, Manchester United man­ager Sir Alex Fer­guson even­tu­ally made a double sub­sti­tu­tion with Rio Ferdin­and and Michael Car­rick com­ing on for Chris Smalling and Paul Pogba. Then after 65 minutes of action, the rampant home team scored their second goal of the even­ing when the ever dan­ger­ous Oscar de Mar­cos hammered the ball into the back of the net from ten yards out. With just ten minutes remain­ing on the referee´s clock, Manchester United finally man­aged to score when mas­ter marks­man Wayne Rooney net­ted with a beau­ti­ful long range effort that left the home goal­keeper com­pletely help­less. Des­pite some frantic play by the vis­it­ors, there were no more goals to be scored. Manchester United are out of Europe.

Ath­letic Bil­bao: Gorka Iraizoz, Andoni Iraola, Javi Mar­tinez, Fernando Amore­bi­eta, Jon Aurten­etxe, Oscar De Mar­cos, Ander Itur­raspe, Her­rera Ander, Markel Susaeta, Fernando Llorente, Iker Muni­ain. Manchester United: David de Gea, Rafael da Silva, Jonny Evans, Rio Ferdin­and, Patrice Evra, Tom Clev­er­ley, Ji-Sung Park, Michael Car­rick, Ryan Giggs, Ash­ley Young, Wayne Rooney. Attend­ance: 40,000. Ref­eree: Cuneyt Cakir.

Manchester United Memorabilia