LONDON: Athletic Bilbao winger Nico Williams said his team will give their \u201csoul\u201d to beat Manchester United on Thursday and reach the Europa League final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Spain international and his team-mates are dreaming of playing in the showpiece at their own San Mames stadium on May 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winger said the team has been following his brother and team-mate Inaki Williams\u2019 advice during their Europa League run this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom the start we have been keeping a low profile \u2014 my brother said it last year, \u2018keep it low-key\u2019,\u201d said Nico Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI understand the excitement of the fans but we need to be 100 percent focused on the game and on our job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will give our souls to reach that final at San Mames.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Athletic host Ruben Amorim\u2019s United at San Mames on Thursday in the semi-final first leg, before the return at Old Trafford next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nico Williams said it was hard not to get excited about the clash with the Premier League heavyweights, despite the Red Devils\u2019 poor domestic form this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnited is a great team with great players, such as Bruno Fernandes,\u201d continued Nico Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is a lot of excitement in the dressing room, as well as throughout the city and among the entire Athletic family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Athletic have never won a European trophy but have twice lost a Europa League final, including in 2012 when they beat United along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year they won the Copa del Rey, ending a 40-year wait for a major trophy, while Williams claimed the Euro 2024 title with Spain, scoring in the final against England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s in the big games that the great players appear,\u201d added Nico Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to tomorrow and also to the game at Old Trafford.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Athletic coach Ernesto Valverde warned his players that no matter what they accomplish on Thursday, it will only be half-time in the tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhatever happens, the tie will be decided in the second leg,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have to play two good matches to advance, and tomorrow is the first of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is an important match for the season and also in the club\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
United produced an astonishing comeback to beat Lyon in extra time at Old Trafford in the quarter-finals, with three goals in eight minutes, just when it looked like they were heading out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn these competitions, a mistake or one bad minute can send you out,\u201d added Valverde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese are knock-out phases, and you need to know how to play and manage them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valverde recalled United\u2019s famous 1999 Champions League final triumph against Bayern Munich, with the English side netting two stoppage-time goals to snatch victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know they\u2019re capable of winning a European Cup in a minute,\u201d added Valverde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will take that into account\u2026 I don\u2019t know who the favourite (to progress) is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: Athletic Bilbao winger Nico Williams said his team will give their \u201csoul\u201d to beat Manchester United on Thursday and reach the Europa League final. The Spain international and his team-mates are dreaming of playing in the showpiece at their own San Mames stadium on May 21. The winger said the team has been following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4920,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4918\/revisions\/4920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}