Athletic Bilbao celebrate after Fernando Llorente put them
level at Manchester United.
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insists his
side can overturn a 3-2 first-leg deficit after being "well beaten"
in Thursday's Europa League clash at home to Athletic
Bilbao.
United suffered their second successive home defeat in the
tournament as impressive Athletic came from behind to win on the
night.
Wayne Rooney put United ahead, but Fernando Llorente headed an
equaliser before the break. Athletic then turned the screw as Oscar
De Marcos put the Basque side ahead and Iker Muniain capitalised on
Rafael's defensive lapse to make it 3-1.
Rooney's injury-time penalty reduced the areas, but the Red
Devils face a tough task to turn it around at San Mames next
week.
"We were well beaten," Sir Alex said on the official Man United
website. "Athletic Club Bilbao were the better team, they were very
aggressive in terms of their attacking and pressing the ball. Their
system caused us problems. All teams do that away from home - they
overload the midfield which can cause you problems.
"When we went to three midfielders in the second half we seemed
to get better and get a grip of the game and our attacking play was
pretty good then. The attacking part wasn't a problem for us
really, but our defending wasn't very good and it kept us on the
back foot all the time. It was very loose, particularly in the
first half.
"Without David De Gea, we could have conceded four or five
goals. He was superb. He made maybe four or five terrific saves in
the game.
"The second goal put us on the back foot again. I thought it was
offside and if it had been disallowed, I think we could have won
the game. Maybe not deservedly but I think we could have won
it."
On the controversial third, he said: "The ref said to the
players that you can't play without a boot. It seems a bit bizarre
as Patrice only passed the ball about three feet. It was a bit
unfortunate.
"We can win the game, I don't think there's any question about
that. We showed tonight we can make chances against them. Obviously
we're going to have to defend better, that goes without saying.
"His [Marcelo Bielsa's] team probably mirror himself. The work
ethic of their team is fantastic. They worked harder than us
tonight. That's the way he's built his team to work as hard as that
and press the ball everywhere on the pitch. They never stopped
running. They had a two-hour training session yesterday one hour in
the morning at our old training ground and one last night so they
trained for two hours and still put that effort in tonight. It
tells you everything about them."
