Date: Thursday, May 1 2025
Kickoff Time: 2000 Hrs BST
Venue: Estadio de San Mamés, Bilbao, Spain
Europa League Form Guide
Manchester United: WDWDW
Athletic Club: WLWDW
Previous Europa League Meetings
Athletic Club 2—1 Manchester United
Manchester United 2—3 Athletic Club
Manchester United 3—0 Athletic Club
Athletic Club 5—3 Manchester United
All-Time Europa League Record
Manchester United wins: 1
Athletic Club wins: 3
Draws:
Pre-Match Pressers
Rubén Amorim
Ernesto Valverde
Team News
Manchester United
Lisandro Martínez, Amad Diallo, Joshua Zirkzee, Toby Collyer, Diogo Dalot, Ayden Heaven and Chido Obi ruled out. Matthijs de Ligt doubtful.
Athletic Club
Oihan Sancet ruled out.
Know the opposition
Athletic Club, commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or simply Athletic (and nicknamed Lehoiak (The Lions) or Zuri-Gorriak (The Red and Whites)), is a professional football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country, Spain. Football was introduced to Bilbao by two distinct groups with British connections: British workers, and Basque students returning from schools in Britain. In 1898, Juan Astorquia and six other Basque students belonging to the Gymnasium Zamacois began to practice football in Lamiako. Three years later, in 1901, at a meeting held at the Café García, this group of football pioneers, now larger, began conversations to become a legalized official football club, which they called Athletic Club, using the English spelling. The club is one of three founding members of the Primera División that have never been relegated from the top division since its inception in 1929, the others being Real Madrid and Barcelona.
The club featured prominently in the Copas del Rey since its inception. Following their triumph at the Copa de la Coronación by Club Bizcaya, Athletic won their first Copa del Rey in 1903. The star of the early teams was Pichichi, a prolific goalscorer who scored the first goal at the San Mamés on 21 August 1913 and a hat-trick in the 1915 final. The last championship won by Pichichi was the 1921 Copa del Rey, before his death aged just 29 in 1922. Today, the La Liga top-scorer is declared the Pichichi in his honour. Along with fellow Basque clubs such as Real Unión, Arenas Club de Getxo and Real Sociedad, Athletic was a founding member of La Liga in 1928. The big star of the of 1940s and 1950s team was Telmo Zarra, who became one of the club's great legends and the top scorer in its history with 335 goals. He won six Pichichi Trophies for being the top scorer in LaLiga (a record only surpassed by Messi in 2020), and his 38 goals in the 1950–51 season stood as a record for 60 years. He was also the top scorer in LaLiga history since 1950 with 251 goals until in 2014 he was surpassed by Lionel Messi and later by Cristiano Ronaldo (however, he is still the top Spanish scorer in the championship).
Athletic are the fourth most successful club in La Liga with eight titles to their name. In the table of Copa del Rey titles, Athletic is second only to Barcelona, having won it 24 times. It is also the most successful Basque football club in both league and cup titles won. The club also has one of the most successful women's teams in Spain, which has won five championships in the Primera División Femenina. Athletic's main rivals are Real Sociedad, against whom it contests the Basque derby, and Real Madrid, due to sporting and political identity; a minor rivalry also exists with Barcelona due to historical significance. Athletic Club plays its home matches at Estadio de San Mamés.
Referee
Espen Andreas Eskås.
Familiar Faces
N/A.
