The day Bielsa came to Old Trafford and ‘owned’ Ferguson’s Manchester United - The Athletic 14/8/21

Phil Hay and Laurie Whitwell

“It doesn’t matter if you are the away team. It doesn’t matter if the opponent is Manchester United.”

Marcelo Bielsa’s voice rings around Athletic Bilbao’s dressing room. This is half-time of a Europa League last-16 tie at Old Trafford and the first leg is level at 1-1. Bilbao have the advantage of an away goal but Bielsa can see how the game is poised. He can see how the night should end.

He speaks to his players again, gathered around him in their green away shirts. Months of painting Bilbao in Bielsa’s own image have culminated in a chance like this. “You only have to think that we are the green team and we are better than the red team,” he says. “We have to win this match.”

Bilbao’s squad already know the areas where Bielsa is willing to compromise: none at all, and certainly not on the subject of style. We play the same way, he tells them day after day, at home to Granada or away at Real Madrid. Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, the champions of England, get no special treatment either. And nor, when it comes to it, are they ready for what hits them.

March 8, 2012, was the night when Bielsa met Ferguson; met him and wiped the floor of Old Trafford with him. The Europa League was not the European stamping-ground favoured by Ferguson but his team were a long way into the competition and in England, Bilbao were an unknown quantity. If you paid enough attention you would see ripples of intrigue around Bielsa in Spain but his impact was an untold story on these shores until the last-16 draw sent him to Manchester. When the tie was done and Manchester United were eliminated, Ferguson spoke in admiration about a team “whose work rate is higher than any I’ve seen in Europe”.

In Bilbao, they sensed something special in the offing at Old Trafford. The club asked for an increased ticket allocation for the first leg and sold more than 8,000. Supporters camped through the night at the San Mames Stadium to buy them. Their captain, Carlos Gurpegui, was injured and decided to travel to Manchester with friends. There were double-takes when he was seen on a bus taking Bilbao fans from the city centre to the ground. “He’d rather have been in the stands than with the squad,” says Rodrigo Errasti, a journalist who covered the game for Eurosport. “That tells you how unforgettable people thought the whole experience would be.”

On the pitch, seconds before kick-off, there is frisson among the Bilbao players. “It’s a strong-looking XI for Manchester United,” says the television commentary, implying that Ferguson is not treating Bielsa lightly. Athletic’s keeper, Gorka Iraizoz, shouts a final few instructions as his team-mates gather in a huddle, ready to go. The performance they are about to produce will earn them a lasting headline in the Basque newspaper El Correo: “Duenos de Old Trafford”. Owners of Old Trafford.

On the morning of the game in England, a warm one by the standards of Manchester in March, Bielsa took his players out onto the training pitch. For more than two hours, he put them through drills and situational routines, reminding them where to position themselves in attacking and defensive scenarios. Ferguson was fascinated by such a big break from convention but Bielsa thought a session ahead of kick-off was logical. If his team understood the game plan better, they would conserve energy by being more prepared on the night.

“This is unusual in football,” says Mikel San Jose, part of Bilbao’s back four at Old Trafford. “But for us, not at all. We trained when Marcelo wanted us to train and we would do these sessions, sometimes two of them, in the morning of a game: movement, with the ball, without the ball, corners, free kicks. He liked to do that. It meant we were ready. We didn’t think about it as strange.”

Manchester United were not impervious in European home ties but they were not far off it either. They had made a mess of a straightforward group in the Champions League but they were competing strongly in a domestic title race that they would lose on goal difference to Manchester City. Bielsa promised a “fiesta” in Manchester. It was the first meeting between him and Ferguson, two veteran campaigners, and their respect was mutual. “I admire his work,” Ferguson said. “They have great belief and that’s a hallmark of their coach.” Bielsa noticed that Ferguson’s aura made anyone meeting him “look like they were receiving a medal”.

With 24 hours to go, Ander Herrera — one of Bielsa’s dynamic midfielders — was in danger of missing the match through injury. “I was in terrible pain,” he told The Athletic’s Adam Crafton in an interview in 2016, “but then I woke up the next day and the pain had gone. Something out there wanted me to play.” Everyone of Basque descent was desperate to be involved. The region was fiercely proud of its club anyway but Bielsa’s team were mesmerising, unrecognisable from the stagnant side he inherited eight months earlier. Estimates of the number of Bilbao fans who travelled ranged from 8,000 to 12,000. More than 20 chartered flights flew them in.

“It’s difficult to describe in a few words,” says Iker Izaguirre Atutxa, a Bilbao fan who made the journey to Old Trafford. He had lost his father a few months earlier and, for a while, drifted away from football but the tie in England sucked him back in. “It’s the most special moment I’ve ever lived, talking only about football. That Athletic of Bielsa is probably the best I’ve seen in my life. I had ‘piel de gallina’ (goosebumps) from the beginning at the end of the game.”

San Jose was chosen to start after Fernando Amorebieta was sent off against Lokomotiv Moscow in the previous round, part of a line-up with an average age of 23. “After we beat Moscow, we knew it would be Manchester or Ajax,” he says. “When it was Manchester, you could feel how excited people were. There was excitement, for sure, but we were confident. Really confident. We were clear on everything, in defence and attack.

“Bielsa… I think he knows everything about football. He knows how to beat any opponent. When people speak about geniuses, that’s what you see. It is so special. And what he tells you, you believe.”

The tie kicks off and in the first minute, Bilbao break up a Manchester United attack. Bielsa’s players go end-to-end in 15 seconds. Ferguson’s 4-4-2 has Ryan Giggs (on his 902nd club appearance) and Phil Jones in the centre of midfield and they are turning immediately. A cross to the far post comes to nothing but seven Bilbao players are in the box and it is a blatant warning shot. “You can see already…” says the commentator. Genuinely, you can.

“Bielsa is a ‘bueno loco’, a great crazy guy,” Herrera said. “So many coaches these days will think, ‘Let’s look at how the opposition are going to play, and then, depending on how they play, we’ll set up in a certain way’. Bielsa is the stark opposite. He doesn’t give a shit how the opposition plays. He has his beliefs, his methodologies, and he sets out to dictate the terms of play. Whether it’s Athletic Bilbao against Real Madrid and Barcelona or Athletic Bilbao against Levante, it’s the same.”

The opening exchanges at Old Trafford are a rapid education in his tactics. Bilbao go man-to-man and press with energy, which looks impossible to sustain from start to finish. One of Manchester United’s centre-backs brings the ball out over halfway and Fernando Llorente, Bilbao’s No 9, tracks back with him, running close to his own box. Llorente shoots just wide in the third minute and David de Gea is already shouting at his defence. Iker Muniain, only 19 but ready to steal the show, sends a chip over the crossbar. Muniain, Herrera and Markel Susaeta will school Ferguson’s team all evening. Manchester United win a corner but in the blink of an eye, Athletic break and are six on four. At Old Trafford, this is not how it goes.

“We were taken a bit by surprise,” says Eric Steele, Manchester United’s goalkeeping coach in 2012. “We had our game plan, we knew what we were going up against but there’s (the difference between) seeing it on video and then seeing it live.

“Some of what Bielsa did at Bilbao was amazing, in possession and out of possession. He set the tone. We prepared like it was any other game in Europe and we never underestimated the threat of Bilbao. But we were outplayed.”

Bilbao have the ascendancy but in the 22nd minute, Manchester United score. Giggs rides a tackle, Javier Hernandez turns neatly and Iraizoz’s save from his shot is driven in by Wayne Rooney. Ferguson, up in the stands, applauds and smiles. His team are good at digging these results out. Bielsa is alone on the touchline and promptly removes the heavy grey coat he started the night in.

Steele notices that Bielsa has a habit of watching the contest in a crouched position, something he has not seen before. He notices too that when Bielsa stands up, Bilbao’s players take notice. Manchester United establish a short period of pressure late in the first half and Bielsa’s deep voice begins booming out, demanding that Bilbao chase the ball. Suddenly he is active.

“It was your first impression of seeing a coach sitting down on his hunkers and viewing the game that way,” Steele says. “It was noticeable on the night that when he actually stood upright, boy did he get the attention of his players. It was like a signal. The players knew. ‘Wait a minute, the boss is speaking’.

“I’d never seen Sir Alex do it, put it that way. Which I think we did comment on. ‘Maybe that’s what we’re lacking, gaffer. You might have to go and start doing the same in the Premier League’. You can imagine his reaction to that!”

How will Bilbao respond to conceding? Straight away they string together 35 passes on the edge of Manchester United’s box. Susaita lobs a great chance wide, Llorente heads over and De Gea pushes Andoni Iraola’s strike into the side netting. With a minute of the half to go, Iraola, Bielsa’s right-back, has the chance to shoot from 20 yards but thinks better of it and feeds Susaeta out wide. Manchester United are so disorientated that they have no idea who to track. Alone at close range after timing his run beautifully, Llorente heads in.

Bielsa is employing Llorente as a hybrid centre-forward: both a target man and someone who can take possession to feet. He has completely changed the striker’s game, just as he has changed Bilbao. Bilbao almost score again in injury-time and Ashley Young hoofs a clearance downfield. The players skip off for the interval and Bielsa stands in front of them, his eyes shining. “You are the green team…”

In the press room at half-time, Errasti, the journalist, remembers Santiago Segurola “looking as excited as a little child”. Segurola, a well-known media personality in Spain, had got as close to Bielsa as any journalist could and was enchanted by the first half. As inspiring as Bielsa had been for Bilbao, they were hitting a different level.

“The club were in a very positive loop,” Errasti says. “They had that amazing 2-2 draw with Barcelona in the same season and this was another amazing game, amazing football. Those were the two best matches for Marcelo’s Bilbao, no doubt. Some think Old Trafford is the best Bilbao performance ever, definitely away from home.”

Bielsa’s had been the better team for 45 minutes. Manchester United were struggling to find out-balls and had been limited to forays out of their half, hampered by Bilbao pinching possession constantly. Ferguson looked at the data later and discovered that no visiting team in 10 years had covered more ground at Old Trafford. There is a funny moment at the start of the second half where he and Bielsa find themselves standing together in the same technical area (below); Ferguson in Bielsa’s as he walks towards his own but freezing for a moment while he watches Bilbao wade in again.

“When the first half finished Bielsa asked us to be brave,” San Jose says. “If we did the same things, if we dominated the ball, we’d have the same chances to win. I didn’t feel any nerves. I don’t think anyone did. We just played like we were supposed to.”

Muniain, Susaita and Herrera have been involved in everything but after half-time, they go through the gears, fearless and majestic. Chris Smalling dribbles out to halfway but has Llorente breathing down his neck. He turns, retreats and goes back to De Gea. De Gea tips a Muniain shot wide and pushes another shot from the teenager over the crossbar. Llorente drives one into the side-netting. Bilbao are clever at breaking Manchester United’s flat midfield four with vertical passes and their press delivers recoveries around halfway time and again.

The first booking of the night goes to San Jose, who pulls back Hernandez as the striker turns away from him. San Jose shrugs indifferently. It all feels ruthless. The commentator suggests Bielsa would be “happy to take a draw”. The camera cuts to Bielsa whose body language says he will kill anyone who thinks about it.

Herrera is destined to join Manchester United two years later in a £29 million move from Bilbao (by which time Ferguson will have retired). After the move, he quickly discovered how hard it was to play well as an away team at Old Trafford, let alone win there.

“I can’t remember another team who have ever come to Old Trafford and made themselves the protagonist in the same way,” Herrera said. “We battered United — and not just United but Ferguson’s United. I think he was the one who first tried to sign me. I imagine those two games made a difference. We won the second leg 2-1 in Bilbao and those games may have been crucial to my eventual move.”

The pressure on Manchester United tells in the 72nd minute. Bilbao’s press robs Hernandez and Muniain dinks a short pass to Herrera. Herrera’s chip over Ferguson’s defence is exquisite, weighted superbly, and Oscar de Marcos sweeps a finish across De Gea with a swing of his left boot.

Manchester United need a late onslaught but Bilbao are built to last. Bielsa’s murderball sessions are alive and well in Spain — Iraola talks of eating “a big bowl of rice the night before” to cope with them — and his team are prepared to a fault. “Training would last as long as was necessary for him to be happy,” Herrera said. “For example, he is watching Rooney and Anthony Martial dovetail in a certain way. Bielsa will take this clip, simulate and apply it to his system. You will practise it time and time again. During training, you’re thinking, ‘The same again, the same again’ but during the game, you know what your team will do.”

With a 2-1 lead, Bilbao keep coming. Muniain looks capable of running all night and, in the 90th minute, he rifles in a third goal when De Gea palms out De Marcos’ shot. Rafael is asleep and dithering as Muniain charges in behind him, beating the scrambling De Gea to the punch. Bilbao’s players pile on each other in celebration near the corner flag. A mass of Bilbao scarves is twirling in the stands. Bielsa’s side have had 23 shots on goal, more than any team at Old Trafford all season. It’s a rout.

In injury time, De Marcos handles a cross from Hernandez and Rooney converts a penalty. The score shifts to 3-2 and you could call it a lifeline. But no one thinks so.

In between the first and second legs, the competitor in Ferguson gives way to some modest reflection. Bilbao have shocked him. They are managed and coached in a way he reveres. “It amazes me that Athletic trained before the game and then ran as they did during the game,” he says. “On top of running a lot, they do it with great conviction.”

Technically the tie was in the balance but Bilbao’s superiority was such that the outcome of the second leg a week later felt inevitable. Bilbao’s crowd applauded Giggs when he was substituted, acknowledging his long career. They clapped a blistering finish from Rooney 10 minutes from time, too, an effort that left Manchester United trailing 2-1 on the night and 5-3 on aggregate. There was total confidence at San Mames and all of it was vindicated.

“The away leg is what I remember more than anything,” Steele says. “Some of the football… the way they built from the back, through midfield, the work rate… it was one of those nights when you put your hands up.”

San Jose felt less secure after game one. “I never, never thought it was over,” he says. “I never thought Manchester would be so down that we would win again easily. They could come to Bilbao and beat us. That’s probably why we were so good in the second game again.”

His caution was contrary to the words El Correo printed at the end of the first leg, with only one goal separating the clubs. “Muniain killed the tie,” the paper’s report read. “This quarter-final is already closed, it seems.” Old Trafford, owned.