The unique problem Athletic Bilbao must overcome to fulfil Europa League dream | OneFootball

Much like a lot of Athletic Bilbao right now, Nico Williams isn’t playing anything down. Their season is obviously building up to one huge game, and they are hoping it isn’t just a Europa League semi-final with a historic club like Manchester United.

“The dream is to lift the cup in San Mames,” Williams says, articulating the mood of a nation. Athletic’s home stadium will host the Europa League final, as the fan-owned team enjoys one of their best periods for 40 years. “We have a chance to make history in this club,” Williams added.

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Nico Williams is the star of the Athletic Bilbao side looking to reach the Europa League final at home (Getty Images)

The sense of Bilbao almost serving as a European capital of football for the next few weeks is only furthered by the fact Athletic first take on United in a semi-final of immense stakes, while following on from the Basque country’s recent resurgence. So many of the world’s best coaches come from there. There are three in the Premier League alone, in Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery and Andoni Iraola.

So many of the world’s best players are starting to follow. Eight of Spain’s victorious Euro 2024 squad come from the area or neighbouring Navarra.

Many are now wanted by the wealthiest clubs in the world, including Nico Williams and Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi. Both could end up at Arsenal.

Athletic’s historic policy of only featuring players with a link to the Basque country only deepens the emotion, and the pride. Victory this season would not just be a club winning a great international trophy at their home stadium, and the first in their history at that. It would be a team of local lads doing it, with all of this made possible by the fact that the fans themselves own the club.

Such is the depth of emotion, bordering on a spirituality, that it’s little wonder San Mames is called ‘La Catedral’.

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Inaki Williams stars alongside his younger brother Nico in the Athletic team (Getty Images)

Although the stadium has been rebuilt as an impressive modern arena, that was opened in 2013, it still has that feel of a vintage football ground. San Mames is crucially on the exact same patch of land, meaning it is still in the very heart of Bilbao, surrounded by local bars that have been frequented by fans for years. You can just feel the sense of pure football as you walk around.

United are actually one of the clubs with a keener awareness of what this all means, given they’ve been involved in two of the more famous European games in Athletic’s history.

One of those matches actually helped burnish the legend of the Busby Babes. In the 1956-57 European Cup quarter-final, United lost 5-3 in a stirring first leg at San Mames, only to come back 3-0 at Old Trafford. Billy Whelan’s 85th-minute goal in Bilbao was seen as crucial.

The two teams met again almost exactly 55 years later, albeit in the Europa League, to burnish the legend of Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic. A side featuring Iraola and Ander Herrera beat United in both legs of their last-16 tie in 2012, 3-2 at Old Trafford and 2-1 at San Mames.

That has been brought up a lot over the last few days, although Athletic arguably go to Old Trafford now with even more confidence. Why shouldn’t they?

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Manchester United were beaten by Athletic in 2012 (Getty Images)

As United languish 14th in the Premier League, Athletic are aiming to get back in to the Champions League through La Liga, not the Europa League. They are in fourth place, five clear of Villarreal with five games to go.

That means this potential final is uniquely about glory, about emotion - about “the dream”.

That’s also where otherwise pure sentiments can become more complicated. The problem with such dreams is they can turn into obsessions, which can then prove debilitating. The emotion can actually get too much.

This isn’t to try and create doubt for Athletic. It is the precedent of European football. Athletic would be trying to create history in another way.

Over 70 years of European club competition, there have only been four occasions when a club has won a major trophy in their own stadium.

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The modern San Mames stands in the city centre of Bilbao (Getty Images)

The only encouraging element for Athletic is that the last such moment was in the Europa League, although that was as far back as 2002. Feyenoord beat Borussia Dortmund, in a final pairing that itself feels like an anachronism. Pierre van Hooijdonk was the match-winning hero, alongside a young Robin van Persie.

Before that, Barcelona won the 1982 Cup Winners Cup at Camp Nou, beating Standard Liege. There were then two in the early days of the European Cup. Internazionale bear Benfica at San Siro in 1965. Real Madrid had at least one in the Bernabeu, of course. Fiorentina were left with no chance in a 2-0 defeat in 1957.

The final failures are arguably more famous, in part because of the emotional dimension of losing such a fixture in your own stadium.

Roma lost the European Cup to Liverpool in 1984. Sporting lost the Europa League to CSKA Moscow in 2005. Most recently, Bayern Munich famously lost the 2012 Champions League final to Chelsea very late on. That has resonance for this season, given that the German side had been making a home Champions League final their own grand ambition for the campaign.

They instead fell at the quarter-final to Internazionale. Significant injuries didn’t help, but it is impossible not to feel there is something psychological in these situations.

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Ernesto Valverde played and manager Athletic and returned after a spell with Barcelona (Getty Images)

That wouldn’t be new. It is genuinely like all of the stakes around your own stadium become too much. It isn’t like it’s from a limited number of seasons, either. There have been 31 campaigns when a club could have played a final at their own home stadium. That only four have actually carried it through is conspicuous.

Not even Sevilla could manage it in the Europa League, despite their general dominance of the trophy. They fell at the last 16 in 2021-22. Florentino Perez was meanwhile so put out that Real Madrid weren’t in the 2010 Champions League final at the Bernabeu, that he appointed the manager who won it: Jose Mourinho. They went out to Lyon in the last 16 that year, but suffered worse in 1980. Madrid were 2-0 up against Hamburg from a first leg at the Bernabeu, to put them on the brink of what would have been a home final against Nottingham Forest. The German side instead demolished them 5-1, for a “remontada” you don’t hear about as often.

It was like it all became too much, even for Madrid. This is the history and the emotion that Athletic are playing against, as much as United. It’s the great dream, but that is precisely why it can involve a lot of twisting and turning.