After Arsenal, its not the turn of the other ‘Reds’; Manchester United wiped out their chances to win the Champions League. They are still in the running however and will now be competing for the Europa League title.

Athletic Bilbao boot Manchester United

A 3-2 home loss to Athletic Bilbao came as both a shock and a disappointment to the team however Athletic Bilbao were fearless all throughout the game and deserved the win. The first goal was scored by United by Rooney in the 22th minute which was followed by a goal by the counter team in the 44th minute by Llorente  and then another one by De Marcos in the 72the minute. The score was taken to 3-1 as Iker Muniain scored another one. Although a penalty gave United their second goal, it was way too late to have made a difference to the game.

Manchester United are attempting to win the second biggest tournament and be the fourth team to win all three major European club trophies. The other three were Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich.

Sir Alex Ferguson agrees that Bilbao was the better team in every way and earned their victory.

So far this season, Ferguson’s boys have managed to win just one game out of the five European Home games. Though there was objections raised to the goal scored by De Marcos and should have been ruled out for offside. Also the German refree Florian Meyer, according to Ferguson, had an erroneous judgment in giving a free-kick against Patrice Evra. He made the kick without his boot and the rule is that one needs to have the boot on.

“The real rule is you can but when the play is stopped you have to go off the field”, said Ferguson. “It seems a bit bizarre as he only passed it about three feet. It was a bit unfortunate.”

On the other hand, the coach of the winning side said that it was an unfortunate loss for United as they [Bilbao] won with just an extra goal. Nevertheless the team played well and deserved to be acclaimed. The team was aggressive and head-on into the game right from the start. There were tremendous saves by David de Gea. Though United got the motivation they needed by their first goal, they were left behind by the successive goals from their opponents and finally had to let go of their Champions League dreams.

Tags: Athletic Bilbao, Champions League, Europa League, Football, Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson