United, City In Survival Battles

Manchester rivals, United and City, are comfortable at the top of the Premier League standings but will be playing for survival in continental competition today in the Europa League round of sixteen.

United are trailing 3-2 and will be playing away at Athletic Bilbao tonight. A fearless performance by the young Bilbao team in last week’s first-leg encounter was a further blow to what has largely been a stuttering European campaign for United this season.

City are on home soil, where they are unbeaten in Europe in nearly four years, but need to overturn a 1-0 loss at Sporting Lisbon last week.

Bilbao is aiming to be one of three Spanish teams through to the quarterfinals, with Atletico Madrid and Valencia both carrying two-goal advantages after dominant home wins.

Manchester United have lost successive European games for the first time in 16 years to follow up their exit from the Champions League.

“We have had a bad year in Europe,” United manager Alex Ferguson said. “Maybe it is just one of those years where we are having to restock and assess how we should approach games at home.”

Nani, Anderson (hamstring), Antonio Valencia (hamstring) and Tom Cleverley (ankle) are all in doubt for the Europa League match, while even Wayne Rooney may not be risked for this match ahead of a weekend trip to Wolves for the Premier League-leading United.

Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente and playmaker Oscar de Marcos ,both missed training earlier this week ahead of the match at the San Mames, which will be at its 40,000-capacity. Bilbao is aiming to reach the quarterfinals for the first time in 1976-77 season.

“No doubt we are going to suffer, so we’re going to have to stick together and be strong,” midfielder Ander Herrera said. “The best way to close out the series is to score. We’ll go out looking to win from the very first minute while remembering we’re playing one of the world’s best clubs.”

Manchester City will be bidding to rebound from its league loss on Sunday and there’s speculation Carlos Tevez will return to face the Portuguese club.

“I have always been a big fan of Tevez, I love him,” City fullback Micah Richards said. “There were games last season where he carried us on his own and in these sort of games he would get a 1-0 win for us. It’s up to the manager ultimately but I would love to see him back.”

The depth of City’s defensive stocks will be tested with Vincent Kompany (calf) set to miss out, while Joleon Lescott (groin) and right back Pablo Zabaleta (hamstring) both doubtful.