Honestly Man UTD like playing a draw in the first leg and come back and win the encounter especially at Old Trafford and it has become a tradition for them this season but this time around I believe Manchester United will face the hardest test of them all, the mistakes Athletic Bilbao made against Rangers will surely not repeat itself tonight, if any of such mistake happens then the Red Devils are definitely going through. This game is all about make use of every opportunity you have, convert them all and make your opponent wondering, any team that does that will be the winner. Between both teams I'd pick the host as the favorite, both teams do struggle in their respective leagues but Bilbao are far way better than Manchester United and the goals will be more than 2 this time around, I'd be going for a 4-1 win for the home side Athletic Bilbao.
If they can go for a draw that would not be too bad, always good when you leave the decision to second game because that means you just have to play great in one game. Obviously who wouldn't want to win the first leg 3-0 or something and make sure that you do not even have to play that well in the second leg to continue, but that is difficult, so a 0-0 type of draw would be a lot better and could profit them some time, plus helps with the league too, not that it would matter for them.
However, this is one of the hardest games, probably THE hardest game they are going to play this season, so a draw is a good result because they could honestly end up with a huge humiliating defeat here, I know they did alright so far at Europa, but this will be by far the toughest team they will face.
It happened that things went the way of UTD because of that red card that wasn't even necessary in the first place, yes it was a penalty but how did it become a straight red card? This is another reason why I hate the use of var in some decisions, it shows that they are not working according to what they are reviewing. Wanted to see a very tough game where both teams would battle it out and not like this one man down, is frustrating. Since a draw could not happen here maybe Manchester United would try to play a draw the return leg since they are ahead of that encounter. I believe Athletic Bilbao will definitely come out to play without minding the situation at hand after all they already lost the game but if they eventually get like 2-3 goals then the contest will be heated and Man UTD will be under pressure which we all know they are not good at enduring, all the same...a good win for the Red Devils.