Yet again they were inferior to an outstanding Spanish outfit, who scored through Fernando Llorente and Oscar de Marcos either side of the interval.
Now Sir Alex Ferguson will discover what effect a second European exit in a single season has on his team, who look to open up a four-point gap on Manchester City in the Barclays Premier League by winning at Wolves on Sunday.
Having acknowledged how well the Basque outfit had played at Old Trafford seven days ago, Sir Alex Ferguson used the availability of Tom Cleverley to pack his midfield.
The idea was to stem Athletic's source of attacks and get support to lone striker Rooney as quickly as possible.
United did create a very early opening when Park Ji-sung sent Rooney running free.
But the striker opted to cross instead of shoot, no-one was up in support and from that moment, United's hopes took a nosedive.
Markel Susaeta's free-kick was deflected wide after Michael Carrick had fouled Ander Herrera, then Patrice Evra headed Javi Martinez's effort off the line.
The pressure was mounting and United survived a major scare when Llorente found Iker Muniain with a superb pass.
No comments:
Post a Comment