Athletic Bilbao turned round their second leg play-off tie with Napoli spectacularly on Wednesday night. Three goals in 14 minutes was the perfect response after the Italians had appeared to take control of the tie.
Ernesto Valverde’s side showed the fighting qualities they will need if they are to progress beyond a group containing Porto as well as presenting them with tricky trips to face Shakhtar Donetsk and BATE Borisov.
Athletic’s high-octane high pressing brand of attacking football was ultimately too much for Napoli and the partisan atmosphere as the new San Mames was officially inaugurated was just what Los Leones will need to help make their new home a fortress.
The Portuguese champions will provide Athletic with their hardest test and striker Aritz Aduriz, who scored twice in eight minutes to turn the tide against Napoli, told uefa.com that their other opponents would provide a different kind of challenge.
“Porto are the biggest club and they have players and a coach that know our league very well, but we also know them and it’s going to be a very competitive battle,” he commented after the draw. “The worst thing about Shakhtar Donetsk and BATE Borisov are the long journeys that we'll have to take. But regardless, in spite of the difficulties, I think we have a good chance of going through.”
Long journeys to Eastern Europe are usually described as ‘difficult’ but that is often something of a red herring. While Belarus is an unknown quantity, with Shakhtar playing their home games in Lviv due to the conflict in their home city, Athletic’s round trip to Ukraine will be reduced by around 2,000km.
This will be only Athletic's second Champions League campaign, having previously been involved in Europe’s premier club competition in 1998-99 and losing out to Juventus, Galatasaray and Rosenborg.
More recently, in they enjoyed an all-conquering march to the 2012 Europa League final, casting aside Lokomotiv Moscow, Manchester United, Schalke and Sporting Lisbon to reach the final in Bucharest, where they were beaten by Atletico Madrid.
After reaching last season’s Champions League final, Atletico will be optimistic about their chances of progression this time too from a group containing Juventus, Olympiacos and Malmo.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, have the enticing prospect of renewing hostilities with Liverpool, with a chance to avenge a 4-0 loss at Anfield in 2008-09, their biggest defeat in European competition, as well as facing Basel and Bulgarian champions Ludogorets.
Luis Enrique will be looking to rectify the disappointment of Barcelona’s last two Champions League campaigns after crashing out 7-0 on aggregate to Bayern Munich in the semi-finals two years ago, before Atletico edged them out in last season’s quarter-finals.
The four-time winners face a reunion with Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Paris Saint-Germain as well as ties with Ajax and Cypriot outfit APOEL.
