Knowing that I was going to be out all today, I wrote today’s post last evening and scheduled it to be published for 9am this morning but, for some reason known only to the interweb, my blog software decided not to publish it so imagine my horror when I logged on to update things this evening to see that it hadn’t even been posted!
Anyway, I’ve reproduced it below and, having watched the game, my feelings on our attitude to the Europa League remain the same. I take nothing away from Bilbao who were excellent over both legs (and I do hope they now go on to win the tournament) but I’d like to believe that we were not giving 100% in this tie… the alternative is even worse!
Obviously, I won’t be including my bet in the stats (even though it won – typical!).
———————————- The Missing Post Appears Below ——————–
After our dismal performance against Bilbao last week (and, to be fair, Bilbao’s excellent performance) Fergie has been saying all the right things including, somewhat bizarrely, “I think we can win over there” (yes, I know what he means but based on last week’s evidence then I don’t exactly share his optimism) but I’m not convinced.
Behind the words, I don’t think Fergie really wants this competition. I have a suspicion that he is finding the Thursday/Sunday thing a bit of a nuisance and it has perhaps affected routines that have existed at OT for years.
As we have now hit top spot in the Premier League and now face a run of fixtures which, all other things being equal, we could very well take almost maximum points from, I think Fergie just wants to concentrate on that.
Put it another way. Let’s say that we beat City in the Europa League Final but City win the Premier League would any of us be happy with that? I think not. But if City win the Europa League and we win the Premier League then I think all United fans would go for that right now.
One thing is for sure; trying to go for both is going to be tough and I think both Fergie and Mancini know it and the Premier League is the bigger prize.
So, Fergie is likely to once again rest a few players this evening and put out a strongish side (as he did in the first leg) – he will send them out to win but should this be the end of our Europa League road then I doubt many tears will be shed on the flight home.
As for Bilbao, I have to hold my hands up and say that I completely underestimated them last week but, in my defence, I don’t think I was the only one guilty of that. Despite me thinking that they couldn’t possibly keep that level of intensity up for ninety minutes, they did and were as dangerous at the end as they were at the start.
On their home turf, they could be even better but they do have a healthy lead going into this second leg so it will be interesting to see how they approach it. They basically have to stop us from scoring two but if they can score one, we need to get three.
Yes, we’re capable but do we want it? I remain unconvinced and I suspect we might fall slightly short of what is required here this evening.
There could be goals again though. We might as well throw the kitchen sink at this one and I’m sure Bilbao will want to get a goal or two of their own to make our task more difficult.
The price isn’t up to much but I do think it’s a winning bet so I’m going for Over 2.5 goals @ 1.66 with Betfred.