Ferguson impressed by Bilbao

15 March 2012 10:28

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has praised Athletic Bilbao ahead of his side's Europa League return leg with the Spaniards.

The two sides clash in the second leg of their last-16 tie in Bilbao on Thursday, with Marcelo Bielsa's team defending a 3-2 lead picked up at Old Trafford seven days ago.

The Basque outfit, inspired by the likes of Iker Muniain and Fernando Llorente, were highly impressive one week ago in a performance that Ferguson labelled as 'outstanding'.

"We saw plenty of evidence last week of an emerging team that has the prospect of doing very, very well," Ferguson told reporters. "It was an outstanding performance by them, their energy was unbelievable."

"They had the highest stats, in terms of distance run, of any team at Old Trafford in the last 10 years. That's a great credit to, not just their energy, but their desire to do well."

"They had great motivation to do that coming to Old Trafford. Whether they can maintain that seven days later, we will have to wait and see."

"We always feel if we get to this stage of the season, we're expected to win and I expect to win. We've got to bank on the fact we will play a lot better than we did at Old Trafford and I'm sure we will."

The 70-year-old has been impressed with the resilience of his own side in the face of a number of injuries to key players at Old Trafford this season.

"I think we've done really well to hang in there and that's more or less what we've done," Ferguson said.

"We've had some really good performances, but the biggest ask has been to hang in and be there no matter what the team has been."

"We've got the same against Bilbao because Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are unavailable and that's sort of a door slamming in the face again, but we keep carrying on and it points to a resilience in the team that's really admirable."

The Red Devils boss praised his side for staying in touch with their opponents both in the Premier League and abroad, and hoped they could come from behind to progress past Bilbao as they have done with Manchester City domestically.

"We've kept the pressure on City," he said. "We got a break at the weekend and we hope we don't slip up and we win all our remaining games."

"Our run in on paper looks OK, but you have to win them on the field and we've done that the last few seasons very well."

"The players have done exceptionally well and it's an achievement we're still hanging in there in the league and we're still in this game. I think the players really believe that."