Valverde: Avoid Marseille trap

Ernesto Valverde wants Athletic Bilbao to avoid falling into the trap of assuming they’re already passed Marseille in the Europa League.

Athletic lead 1-0 from the first leg in France and with the away goal are in a commanding position ahead of the return, but the Coach explained how the first leg lead could work against his side.

“I consider the first leg an advantage, we got a good result. It would be a trap if we believed we’d won something, we can’t speculate on the result,” he said, AS reports.

“They have the quality to recover. We have to have the same concentration as in the first leg.

“They’re a strong team. We have to be careful with our strategy. They manage counter-attacks well and have trouble at home. The numbers are significant.”

Athletic will be without Benat Etxebarria, Inaki Williams and possibly Aritz Aduriz, and go into the game on the back of a home defeat to neighbours Real Sociedad.

“Benat and Inaki are out. Aritz had a heavy blow and some discomfort. We hope he’ll be available. We’ll wait for training,” Valverde said regarding the injury situation.

“Raul Garcia is coming back from a major injury. Iker Muniain is more or less recovered. They could be involved.

“It’s true we’ve had some difficulty with teams that close down. The other day against La Real was the result of not enough tranquillity. Sometimes the momentum we had created indecision.”

Tags Ernesto Valverde
La Liga - Club News