United Endures Another Terrible Night In Europe

Manchester United 2 - Athletic Bilbao 3

Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (22, pen 90)
Athletic Bilbao: Llorente (44), Oscar (72), Muniain (90)


Team: De Gea, Evans, Smalling (Carrick 55), Rafael, Evra, Park (Anderson 60), Giggs (Rio 75), Jones, Young, Rooney, Hernandez

No doubt the scoreline would raise some eyebrows, but for anyone who caught the game, it was a scoreline that utterly flattered us. Only the extraordinary heroics of De Gea kept it salvagable. Bilbao were truely the better side by a country mile and the tie should have been over tonight.

Right from the whistle, you'd be excused if you thought you accidentally walked onto the set of The Walking Dead season 3, with the men in red playing zombies. It was all Bilbao right from the onset but somehow against the run of play, we took the lead midway in the first half. It was some brilliant work by Giggs and Hernandez that paved the way for Rooney to score.

Sadly, that was the only time in the game where we did well. The spark was snuffed out competently by a rampant Bilbao and it wasn't any surprise when they equalized at the end of the half with a sweet header from Llorente. Prior to that, they had a couple of legitimate penalty appeals turned down.

Most of the attacks came down Evra's side. At some point, you'd be left wondering if the entire Bilbao team had taken a crack at him, and just to maintain the status quo, can anyone tell me: what is the point of Evra? He's been having a terrible year and due to the lack of replacements, we just keep on playing his sorry ass.

De Gea had to perform miracles in the second half just to keep Bilbao at bay, but you can only part the red sea so many times. Bilbao got their just deserves with a delightful finish from Oscar.

Muniain added a third in injury time after he was the first to pounce on another brilliant De Gea save. He deserved the goal after a superlative performance.

The tie should have been dead and buried, but we found a lifeline with an unlikely penalty. On the replays, it looked like the Bilbao player had handled the ball outside the box, but the referee pointed to the spot anyway and Rooney restored some element of punctured pride by putting away the spot kick.

We are left with an uphill task of having to score at least two goals in Spain to keep our floundering European hopes alive.

In all honesty, it's been like playing Jenga when it comes to watching United this season. Every successive game watched is like taking another piece of the off the puzzle. Right now it seems like the tower is teetering to and fro, wobbling towards the inevitable collapse.