Latest Posts

Mirandés 1-2 Athletic Club

Athletic Club finished their preparations for the new season with a win against newly promoted Segunda Division side Mirandés at the Estadio Anduva. Aritz Aduritz and Unai Núñez were on the scoresheet for Athletic in the 18th and 51st minutes respectively and Brazilian striker Matheus Aias, who is on loan from Watford, pulled one back for Mirandés in the 54th minute.

Gaizka Garitano gave another pre-season run out to a few of the fringe players in this final friendly encounter of the summer, with many of the first teamers having played against Roma in Italy the previous night. The starting XI was: Iago Herrerín, De Marcos, Vivian, Núñez, Balenziaga, San José, Beñat, Larrazabal, Sancet, Kodro, Aduriz. Vesga, Ganea, Nolaskoain and Villalibre made appearances from the bench.

AS Roma 2-2 Athletic Club

Coach Gaizka Garitano sent out a strong line-up for the heavyweight friendly match against Italian outfit AS Roma as Athletic Club made their final overseas voyage of this pre-season programme.

The starting XI of Unai Simón, Capa, Yeray, Iñigo Martínez, Yuri Berchiche, Dani García, Unai López, Muniain, Raúl García, Córdoba, Williams could give a strong indication of his preferences for the first match of the Liga campaign against Barcelona on the 16th of August.

Garitano will be pleased with the performance from his charges in this encounter as they more than matched Roma and were highly unlucky not to leave with a victory. Muniain gave Athletic Club the lead in the 26th minute and they held it until Kolarov equalised for Roma with a free-kick in the 59th minute. Yuri Berchiche was then sent off but the ten men of Athletic regained the lead through a Raúl García penalty in the 77th minute. They were only denied right at the death when then referee awarded Roma a highly dubious penalty for a handball that seemed to have been committed by a Roma player.

Garitano only made three substitutions during this tie, bringing on Unai Núñez for Córdoba just after the hour mark and introducing Kodro and Vesga in the last ten minutes.

Racing 2-1 Athletic Club

Athletic Club suffered a first defeat of their pre-season schedule with a 2-1 reversal to Racing of Santander at El Sardinero.

None of the outfield players who had started the previous day’s match against West Ham featured in this encounter, although goalkeeper Herrerin and some of the substitutes did double up with this one.

Athletic club fell behind in the tenth minute and that’s the way it remained until five minutes from full time when an own goal from Olaortua looked to have rescued a draw for the Lions. However, Racing regained the lead with only two minutes remaining and held on for the win.

Garitano opted for the following starting line-up: Iago Herrerín, De Marcos, Vivian, I. Martínez, Balenziaga, San José, Beñat, Ibai, Vesga, Larrazabal, Aduriz and made six changes during the second half, bringing on Nolaskoain and Sancet for Vesga and Vivian in the 62nd minute, Iñigo Vicente and Villalibre for Ibai and Aduritz in the 76th minute and Oleaga for Herrerín three minutes later. Kodro came on for Larrazabal with four minutes remaining.

Manchester United 2-2 AC Milan

Manchester United failed to win for the first time this pre-season, but they did maintain their unbeaten record with a 2-2 draw against AC Milan in the International Champions Cup in Cardiff and even managed to round things off with a penalty shoot-out win in their final match before the new campaign gets underway at home to Chelsea on Sunday.

Starting XI:
De Gea – Wan-Bissaka, Rojo, Lindelöf, Shaw – Pereira, McTominay, Matic, Mata – Rashford, Martial

Marcus Rashford, who will be keen to up his goals tally this season and prove himself as a genuine centre-forward, opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute with an assist from Nemanja Matic. However, the Italians levelled the scores through Suso midway through the first half to go into the interval on equal terms.

Swedish centre-back Victor Lindelöf put through his own net in the 60th minute to complete the turn-around before a flurry of substitutions from both sides altered the shape of the game. United introduced James, Fred, Young, Lingard and Tuanzebe for Mata, Matic, Wan-Bissaka, Pereira and Rojo and Lingard it was who equalised a few minutes later with an assist from Martial.

Youngsters Greenwood and Gomes came on up front for the last few minutes for United, but they couldn’t affect the result. However, both had a large part to play in the ensuing penalty shoot out as they converted their kicks alongside Lingard, Young and James to beat Milan 5-4 on penalties.

Bournemouth 3-0 Olympique Lyonnais

Lyon suffered a confidence sapping defeat away to Premier League side Bournemouth in their final pre-season friendly before hostilities resume in Ligue 1. This latest reversal means that they have lost four out of five friendlies since new manager Sylvinho took over, and none more emphatically than this. It was the first time they have failed to find the back of the net under the Brazilian and it looks increasingly as though he has yet to discover his best eleven and formation. However, you can’t read too much into the pre-season formbook, so it will be interesting to see how they get on when they kick off the new season away at Monaco on Friday (9th August).

Sylvinho initially deployed his men in a very attacking 4-2-3-1 formation as follows:

Lopes – Dubois, Andersen, Denayer, Rafael – Mendes, Aouar – Traoré, Memphis, Terrier – Dembélé

However, they failed both to carve out many opportunities going forwards or to keep things tight at the back and Bournemouth were two goals up within twenty minutes through Wilson and Kilkenny. Tete, Lucas, Cheikh, Tousart, Gouiri and Caqueret were introduced at various points during the second period, but they had little impact on proceedings as Bournemouth eventually extended their lead through King in the 73rd minute.

Sylvinho will have a lot to ponder over the coming few days. Not least how to plug the holes in a defence that appears to be every bit as porous as it was last season under Bruno Genesio. If he can work that out, without losing any of the potency at the other end of the pitch then he should do well. If not, then Lyon fans could be in for a testing season.

West Ham United 2-2 Athletic Club

Athletic Club remained unbeaten in their pre-season programme despite blowing an early two goal lead against West Ham at the London stadium.
Unai López opened the scoring in the first minute and Williams made it two after a quarter of an hour, having been set up nicely by Muniain.

However, the Hammers struck back with two goals in quick succession through Lanzini and Wilshere to make it 2-2 with only 22 minutes gone. That’s the way it stayed. There was a short penalty shoot out at the end, which Athletic managed to win.

Athletic Club lined up as follows:

Herrerín – Capa, Núñez, Yeray, Yuri Berchiche – Dani García, Unai López, Muniain, Raúl García – Córdoba, Williams.

Garitano swapped Simón for Herrerín in goal at half time and brought Ibai and Sancet on for Córdoba and Unai López in the 70th minute. De Marcos, Beñat, Aduriz and Vivian all got a short run out in the last ten minutes.

CD Numancia 1-1 Athletic Club

Athletic Club followed their successful weekend in Germany with a 1-1 draw away at Segunda Division side Numancia in Soria. The Lions fell behind in the seventh minute but drew level early in the second half when Vivian headed in substitute Ibai’s free kick.

The Athletic starting line-up was as follows:

Simón – De Marcos, Vivian, Iñigo Martínez, Balenziaga – San José, Beñat, Larrazabal, Sancet – Vicente, Aduriz.

Unlike in previous pre-season friendlies when the whole team was replaced during the match, manager Garitano only made six substitutions this time around. Ibai came on for Vicente at half time, in the 57th minute Nolaskoain and Kodro replaced Iñigo Martínez and Aduriz, and in the 74th minute Vesga, Villalibre and Capa came on for Beñat, Sancet and De Marcos.

Kristiansund 0-1 Manchester United

Manchester United laboured to a 1-0 friendly win against Kristiansund in Norway in the latest match of their pre-season tour and needed a last minute penalty from substitute Juan Mata to break the deadlock and maintain their one hundred percent record in their summer programme.

The match was all about the Solskjær family, with United manager Ole Gunnar returning to the club formed by a merger involving one of his former teams in his hometown, and seeing his nineteen year old son Noah make his professional debut for Kristiansund.

It’s not a particularly impressive result for United against mediocre opposition, but is perhaps understandable given they only stepped off a flight back from China a couple of days earlier. United began with a strong line-up of:

De Gea – Shaw, Jones, Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka – Matic, McTominay, Lingard, James, Martial – Rashford

They changed all eleven players for the last half hour of the game and completed the match with the following selection:

Romero – Dalot, Tuanzebe, Rojo, Young – Pogba, Fred, Andreas, Mata, Chong – Greenwood.

Olympique Lyonnais 1-3 Liverpool

Lyon suffered another defeat in their pre-season programme, but there was no shame in losing out to the European champions Liverpool at the Stade de Geneve.

Lyon raced into an early lead when Dembélé won a penalty after a goalkeeping error in only the second minute and Memphis Deplay converted it. However, that was as good as it got for the Lyonnais and, despite a couple more chances of their own, they were pegged back by Roberto Firmino in the seventeenth minute, and fell behind four minutes later when Andersen put through his own net in his first start since his summer move from Sampdoria.

Sylvinho again made multiple changes at the interval and throughout the second period but his players couldn’t get back into the game and Wilson sealed it for the reds with a long-range strike in the 53rd minute.

The line-up was as follows:
Lopes (Tatarusanu, 46′) – Dubois (Tete, 63′), Andersen (Solet, 65′), Denayer (Marcelo, 46′), Marçal (Rafael, 22′) – Mendes (Tousart, 46′), Lucas (Cheikh, 46′), Aouar (Fofana, 75′) – Traoré (Kitala, 63′), Dembélé (Gouiri, 65′), Memphis (Caqueret, 63′).

Borussia Monchengladbach 0-2 Athletic Club

Athletic had a successful conclusion to their weekend in Germany with an impressive 2-0 win against Borussia Monchengladbach.

Iñaki Williams had sat out the previous day’s draw with Paderborn, so he was fresh for this encounter and he opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the fifteenth minute. His strike partner Iñigo Córdoba doubled the advantage five minutes after half time and there was no coming back for the Germans.

Garitano had switched ‘keepers at the interval and he replaced all ten outfield players in the 67th minute as he continues to assess the fitness of his squad. Next up it’s Numancia on Thursday night.

The starting line up was as follows:

Simón – Capa, Núñez, Nolaskoain, Yuri Berchiche – Dani García, Unai López, Muniain – Córdoba, Ibai, Williams.

Substitutions: Herrerín (46’) for Simón. De Marcos, Vivian, Yeray, Balenziaga, San José, Sancet, Larrazabal, Raúl García, Vicente and Villalibre (67’) for everyone else.