Athletic seeks to reach Europe in another ‘final’ in Seville

Once again it is Athletic’s turn to play something important in Seville, a city that has recently experienced a good handful of disappointments, if we leave aside the reign in the Super Cup last year. That was in La Cartuja, where three months later they lost two Cup finals in 15 days. Some time ago, at Pizjuán, Muniain was seriously injured and the team, then led by Valverde, fell there in 2016 in the Europa League quarterfinals, in a penalty shootout in which Beñat failed.

Now the pass to the Conference League is played. A traced episode that is presented on Sunday was lived in 2019, with Garitano on the bench. Athletic was chasing the ticket to the Europa League against an unassuming Sevilla de Caparrós. The party was an exercise of impotence on the part of the people from Bilbao. It was worth the tie. Ben Yedder put the team from Seville ahead in the 44th minute. To add more drama to the situation, a shot by Íñigo Martínez in added time, on a dead ball that fell to him after a corner kick, ran into the crossbar. In the subsequent against local, Munir took advantage of a crazy exit from Herrerín to make it 2-0, in the 92nd minute.

There are still many players left in the Athletic squad from that match, all except Herrerín and Beñat among the starters and Aduriz, Ibai and San José among those who took the field with the match started. So the Yeray, Iñigo Martínez, Balenziaga, Yuri, Dani García, Muniain and Williams will have the chance to make up for it. Fewer options include Raúl García, injured this Sunday against Osasuna and likely to be out, and Capa, who, although he played his first minutes of the season against the rojillos, has not counted for his coach throughout the course. Three years ago, Espanyol, who played in Europe and were relegated the following season, took advantage of Athletic’s failure.

On this occasion, Sevilla does not play anything either, because it won the ticket for the Champions League on Sunday. He only aspires to snatch third place from Atlético. “It won’t be easy to win in Seville, but we’re optimistic, it won’t be easy for Villarreal to do it at the Camp Nou either,” Marcelino advances. The lions are one point behind the Submarine, who have won the goal average. El Submarino plays at the Camp Nou against a Barça also without aspirations. “Once again in Seville, he seems to want to, it smells like a final because we need the three points, we will go serious and win,” summarizes Villalibre.