Ernesto Valverde has admitted that Athletic Bilbao’s Europa League tie with Torino “is still up in the air” following Thursday’s 2-2 draw in the first leg.
Carlos Gurpegi’s late equaliser earned Los Leones a crucial away result in northern Italy after two Maxi Lopez goals had cancelled out Inaki Williams’ ninth-minute opener.
“This result means we only need a 0-0 or 1-1 [in the second leg to progress into next round],” the Coach noted after the game.
“It gives us a slight advantage, but there’s no clear favourite and the tie is still up in the air.
“Things went wrong for us in the final stretch of the first half because of changes in the game’s dynamics.
“It was one of the reasons why I decided to change our tactical set-up after the break and switch to playing with three centre-backs.
“I’m confident that the goals we scored and our overall improvement in this game will spur us on for the match against Rayo Vallecano [on Sunday], which is fundamental.
“It’s true that we’ve made changes [to the team], but it’s normal when you have continuous run of games like we have.
“We have a big-enough squad to compete [on all fronts]. We’ll need our players to recover [in time] for Sunday because we need to be fresh.”
