Bilbao, Valencia Walk Tightrope In Europa League

Athletic Bilbao are hoping another strong performance at their San Mames home can see them past Sporting Lisbon in tonight’s semi-final second leg and into next month’s UEFA Europa League final.

The Basque club were too strong for Manchester United and Schalke earlier in this season’s competition, but their chances of reaching a second European final – and first since 1977 – are on a knife-edge after a 2-1 defeat in the first leg in Lisbon last Thursday.

Athletic had taken the lead courtesy of a Jon Aurtenetxe goal in Portugal only for Emiliano Insua to equalise and Spanish international winger, Diego Capel, to give Sporting the upper hand.

However, midfielder Ander Herrera remains confident as to Athletic’s chances in the return. “A 1-0 win would put us through, so we need to be optimistic,” he said.

“We are strong at San Mamés in front of our fans and we just need to go out and demonstrate that. We have a result that we can overturn. We have to improve because there were things to improve, but we also have to be optimistic.”

After missing Sunday’s 1-0 win at Racing Santander in La Liga due to an eye problem, young star Iker Muniain is set to return for Athletic.

Meanwhile, Sporting make the trip fresh from recording a fourth straight domestic league win, 3-2 at Nacional, and should be able to welcome back Matias Fernandez, an attacking threat who has played under Athletic coach, Marcelo Bielsa, for the Chilean national team.

Sporting are looking to follow in the footsteps of compatriots Porto and Braga, who met in an all-Portuguese Europa League final 12 months ago.

However, If Athletic make it through they will set up the first all-Spanish continental final since Sevilla beat Espanyol on penalties at Hampden in the UEFA Cup in 2007.

The other semi-final might have been decided last week, but a Ricardo Costa header in stoppage time at the Vicente Calderon gave Valencia a precious second away goal in a 4-2 defeat against Atletico Madrid.

Valencia have blown hot and cold in recent times, but they were on fire on Sunday in a 4-0 thrashing of Betis at the Mestalla that strengthened their grip on third place in La Liga.