“Anything can happen” at Old Trafford in Europa League semi-final, says Athletic Club defender | OneFootball

Yeray Álvarez is confident that Athletic Club can overturn a three-goal deficit when they take to Old Trafford in the second leg of their UEFA Europa League semi-final on Thursday.

The defender, who has never reached this stage of a European competition before, told reporters in a pre-match press conference that “the team is confident. We’ve worked knowing that anything can happen, and football can change at any moment.”

“It’s every player’s dream to play in this kind of game,” he expressed in the media conference room at the Theatre of Dreams, following the Zurigorri’s arrival in Manchester earlier in the day.

Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United tore apart the Athletic Club defence at San Mamés last week, putting three goals past the Basque side after they were reduced to ten men when Dani Vivian was sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity in the first half.

But Athletic Club had dominated prior to the defender’s dismissal, and Yeray insists that “those minutes you saw at San Mamés before the sending off is the football that Athletic want to show. We’ve got to press high, generate as many chances as possible and try to score goals.”

The 30-year-old isn’t naïve, though. He knows it’ll be a tough task to put three goals past the Red Devils in front of their home faithful because they have “incredible ability and if you leave them a small advantage, they can score three goals out of nothing.”

“We’re all really looking forward to playing tomorrow, controlling the pitch and everything that comes our way,” the Barakaldo-born defender explained.

Manchester United v Athletic Club gets underway at 20:00 BST [21:00 CEST] on Thursday 8 May.