magnifico bilbao!!

anyone else watch their demolition of moan utd last night?
was enjoying at first, simply because they were beating them, but by the end i was just purring over their performance.
should have had 6 ,but llorente's 20 yard volley from a50 metre cross field pass was sublime.
the 2 full backs Iraola and aurtenetxe (who's only 20) were awesome whilst martinez (23) who was nominally a center back but who also found time to play like a marauding toure type midfielder
they swarmed all over moan u, swamping them with challenges, a bit like barca do. the usual superb passing and techincal skills and some brilliant bits of skill, as we've come to expect from la liga sides .
if they can keep hold of those players they may well be able to challenge the big 2 next season. hope to god that channel 5 are able to show them in the next round coz they are a treat to watch

Fantastic performance. Frightening to see how way ahead of the English Premier they are. When you see the tv pundits here saying how great Scholes and Giggs are for playing at their age in 'the best League in the world', then you see Giggs looking some some old Grandad in a game down at the local park, barely able to keep up with the pace until eventually subbed you realise how far the game has fallen here. Bilbao could almost have played in Barca shirts and you'd not notice.

Didnt see much of last nights game Forza, but saw most of the first leg and about 20 minutes last night.

Bilbao looked a much better side than their league position, maybe with having so many young players they struggle with a bit of inconsistency or make the odd daft mistake.

If I remember rightly though Martinez was/is a midfielder highly rated as a good passer of the ball. He's been moved into defence by their new manager to give a deeper passing base - similarly to Busquets and Mascherano at Barca when they're played at CB.

But we are the best league in the world and Man United are sitting at the top of it. its simpley not fair cos we gave the world footie

I watched both the home and away legs of this tie and was mightily impressed with Bilbao.They totally outplayed United and swarmed all over them with speed,skill and lots of passion.The aggregate score flattered United.

I also knew there would be a few people who took delight in watching Man U getting their ar$es handed to them but i take a different view.It makes me sad to watch a team currently lying 7th in La Liga totally take apart our current champions,as it shows how far behind the rest of Europe we are and seemingly getting further.

When Man U got ripped apart by Barca in the final,Fergie admitted that we couldn't live with them and set about bringing younger players into his squad.Last night, those youngsters like Smalling,Cleverley,Young and Wellbeck were so far behind the Spaniards as to be embarrassing.

The coaching of young players in this country is a joke.The F.A. and the Premier league just keep banging on about how good the standard is in this country,when it is anything but.Man City also went out last night to a mediocre Sporting Lisbon,who are not even in the top four in an average Portuguese league.

Chelsea just managed to scrape through in the CL and the two Manchester clubs never even made it out the group stages.Man U couldn't beat Basel,a team who were smashed 7-0 by Bayern the other night.Let's not forget either how much better the Dutch were at Wembley recently.

When France won theEuros and the World Cup,there was yet another round of hot air from the powers that be in our game stating that we needed to follow their example in bringing players through from an early age.Of course this all takes time and money and again nothing was done as usual.

All the while,those perennial underachievers Spain,invested money in coaching and are now making us look not just second rate,but third.

Someone posted an article on here a while back about the parlous state of coaching in this country and the fact that despite having the largest number of professional players,we have by far the least amount of qualified coaches.The powers that be ought to be ashamed.Our game is awash with money.

It doesn't matter as we have the "best league in the world" and the most expensive flagship national stadium for the national team to parade their poor first touch and vision in.

Bilbao were good though,weren't they?

Quoted from ginnywings

I watched both the home and away legs of this tie and was mightily impressed with Bilbao.They totally outplayed United and swarmed all over them with speed,skill and lots of passion.The aggregate score flattered United.

I also knew there would be a few people who took delight in watching Man U getting their ar$es handed to them but i take a different view.It makes me sad to watch a team currently lying 7th in La Liga totally take apart our current champions,as it shows how far behind the rest of Europe we are and seemingly getting further.

When Man U got ripped apart by Barca in the final,Fergie admitted that we couldn't live with them and set about bringing younger players into his squad.Last night, those youngsters like Smalling,Cleverley,Young and Wellbeck were so far behind the Spaniards as to be embarrassing.

The coaching of young players in this country is a joke.The F.A. and the Premier league just keep banging on about how good the standard is in this country,when it is anything but.Man City also went out last night to a mediocre Sporting Lisbon,who are not even in the top four in an average Portuguese league.

Chelsea just managed to scrape through in the CL and the two Manchester clubs never even made it out the group stages.Man U couldn't beat Basel,a team who were smashed 7-0 by Bayern the other night.Let's not forget either how much better the Dutch were at Wembley recently.

When France won theEuros and the World Cup,there was yet another round of hot air from the powers that be in our game stating that we needed to follow their example in bringing players through from an early age.Of course this all takes time and money and again nothing was done as usual.

All the while,those perennial underachievers Spain,invested money in coaching and are now making us look not just second rate,but third.

Someone posted an article on here a while back about the parlous state of coaching in this country and the fact that despite having the largest number of professional players,we have by far the least amount of qualified coaches.The powers that be ought to be ashamed.Our game is awash with money.

It doesn't matter as we have the "best league in the world" and the most expensive flagship national stadium for the national team to parade their poor first touch and vision in.

Bilbao were good though,weren't they?

couldn't agree with you more ginny, although i take huge delight whenever our premiership teams are beaten or out played by these inferior johnny foreigner teams. the delight is listening to these myopic,xenophobic commentators and experts having to admit through clenched teeth that these little foreign teams are superior to their premiership darlings.
btw biggles bielsa only took over in the summer so they had a slow start as it took time for them to get to his preferred levels of fitness and for him to get them playing exactly the way he wanted. bielsa is avery interesting character

http://www.independent.co.uk/s.....madness-7544610.html

Bilbao played brilliantly over the two legs, but United struggled because no team domestically attacks them like that. Bilbao's work rate was incredible, they gave United no time on the ball and United's defence couldn't handle the pressure. I've seen no other team close down the opposition in their own box like Bilbao did. Used the ball cleverly as well.

Inconsistent team though. Only 7th domestically, and only been able to string together 2 consecutive wins in the league twice so far.

Quoted from codhead91

Bilbao played brilliantly over the two legs, but United struggled because no team domestically attacks them like that. Bilbao's work rate was incredible, they gave United no time on the ball and United's defence couldn't handle the pressure. I've seen no other team close down the opposition in their own box like Bilbao did. Used the ball cleverly as well.

Inconsistent team though. Only 7th domestically, and only been able to string together 2 consecutive wins in the league twice so far.

you've not watched barca over the last couple of years then??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYnYwMocQ2w

just one other thing to add -  the reason we were soooo good at cambridge was that we played a similar type of game (albeit at a much lower level)

Quoted from forza ivano

you've not watched barca over the last couple of years then??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYnYwMocQ2w

There was a point in the game last night when Bilbao had 3 players pressing United in their box. Never seen Barca press to that extent.