Valverde revels in away triumph

Ernesto Valverde hailed Athletic Bilbao’s 2-0 Europa League win at Partizan Belgrade on Thursday as “one of our best away performances of the season”.

Goals from Raul Garcia and Benat Etxeberria either side of half-time earned Los Leones their first win on the road in 2015-16, and the Coach revelled in his side’s triumph, although he was quick to soothe talk of qualification for the knockout stages.

“It was a good match and a very serious performance from the team,” he said after the game.

“We took the lead and then began looking for the goal to give us peace, which we found.

“I think we deserved to score earlier than we did. [Partizan] is a difficult venue and we’re happy six points give us possibilities [of reaching the knockouts].

“We’re known to have lots of possession, like in the game against AZ, which ended in a 2-1 defeat, but [Thursday] we had possession and the result.

“It was one of our best away performances because we got the result too.

“I don’t believe we’ve taken command of the group as our rematch against Partizan remains very important [following Augsburg’s win at AZ].

“Benat is very important to us. When he touches the ball a lot, it’s good for us.

“He managed to do so [on Thursday], even though the state of the pitch made it difficult, and his goal was the culmination of the work he did.

“[On Markel Susaeta coming off early in the second half], he had tendonitis in his Achilles.”

Tags Ernesto Valverde Partizan Belgrade
La Liga - Club News