Manchester United vs Athletic Bilbao 2-3 Highlights 2012 March

Manchester United are playing in the Europa League for the very first time in their history, they have always been front runners for the Champions League crown but they are not as good as they were use to be as Real madrid and Barcelona has kind of taken over English dominance in the last couple of years in Champions League so United getting out of the Champions League and playing in the 2nd tier of the European Competition should not be a failure as they can really win this one.

In the Round of 16 match in the Europa League they are playing against Athletico Bilbao and they are a very tough side to beat with possible United trasnfer targer Llorente playing for them in forward line and he can cause United alot of problems. Some of the New United players dont have the enough experience at the highest level of the European exposure and this is a good competition for them to prepare themselves for the next year.

Manchester United just sneaked through to the next round by defeating Ajax on aggregate goals 3-2, they lost the 2nd leg at home by 2-1 and that was their first defeat at home for quite some time in European Competitions. Athletic de Bilbao on the other hand are unbeaten in the last 4 games winning 3 matches and playing some solid football and they will be a tough nut to crack specialy as they are playing the 2nd leg at their home ground.

MANCHESTER UNITED TEAM NEWS:
De Gea, Fabio, Smalling, Ferdinand, Evra
Nani, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Hernandez, Rooney

ATHLETIC BILBAO TEAM NEWS:
Iraizoz, Iraola, San Jose, Ekiza, Aurtenetxe
Martinez, Herrera, Susaeta, De Marcos, Muniain, Llorente