If any team can make unwanted European history, it’s Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United

It is Manchester United against Athletic Bilbao . Even though, in certain aspects, it feels like Manchester United versus Manchester United, with Ruben Amorim uncertain about which version of United will show up and, indeed, whether the team that begins a match will complete it. They tend to be their own worst enemies They might become officially known as Europa League ’s best team.

They could be the Amorim enigmas. "At the end of the season, we might turn out to be the worst team." Premier League "History with a European title," remarked a head coach whose team has displayed performance levels that ought to be unattainable for a club possessing Manchester United’s financial assets.

Amorin has secured merely 24 points from the initial 24 matches of the Premier League season. Currently, they stand at fifteenth place. However, they remain the sole team without a defeat across all three European competitions this term, demonstrating a victorious streak not reflected in their performance within domestic fixtures.

Despite having one foot in the Europa League final, Amorim was cautious about becoming complacent as he gave an unsure assessment of their chances in the semi-final second leg. "If you consider our current squad," he said emphatically, "we can’t predict exactly how things will unfold today."

The rebuttal is that, in fact, this time it is It's possible to say that United won. The initial match ended 3-0 in Bilbao. . Athletic are without their three best attacking players , the injured contingent of Nico and Inaki Williams plus top scorer Oihan Sancet, while their finest defender, Dani Vivian, is suspended. On 133 previous occasions, an away team has won a Europa League or Uefa Cup first leg by at least three goals. On all 133, they then went through at home.

These 133 pages did not bring them together as one. "When we consider our season," reasoned Amorim, "anything can happen. A single goal has the power to alter everything; it can shift the course of the match entirely, just like how a red card changed things last week. Our aim remains focused on securing victory."

Amorim has dedicated a significant portion of this season talking United down , often to the bewilderment of outsiders. On his team, winning in Europe but losing in England, consistency seems to be marked by its very absence. The 5-4 victory against Lyon It was a prime example. Manchester United led 2-0 and delivering one of their best displays of the campaign. However, they ended up conceding four goals and found themselves trailing 4-2 against opponents who had been reduced to ten players. Subsequently, they managed to score three times within just seven minutes, with the final two goals coming from a midfielder and a center-back playing out-of-position as forward substitutes.

Which version of Manchester United will show up? "It’s difficult to predict, and you never know what type of squad they’ll have on match day," Amorim reflected. "During the game, we might start well as one unit but then some event can cause us to lose focus momentarily."

It could be argued that Bilbao became somewhat unhinged during a catastrophic fifteen-minute period that resulted in three goals and a red card. Meanwhile, Amorim’s strategy has solely focused on analyzing the opening segment of last week’s match. This segment included a remarkable save from Andre Onana, a crucial goalline clearance by Victor Lindelof, and a significant missed opportunity by Inaki Williams. "I spent considerable time watching the initial 30 minutes and then disregarded the remainder since one cannot plan for games with uneven numbers," he explained.

If part of Amorim’s message is that United are setting out to win the second leg, and not merely the tie, the club’s history dictates that they often don’t do things the easy way. “We will have to suffer a bit to go to the final,” said the Portuguese.

Suffering has been a theme of a campaign featuring 16 league defeats, a mere 42 top-flight goals and, in Amorim’s time, only three victories against sides who will be in the 2025-26 Premier League.

“We know this season was really disappointing for everybody,” Amorim added. “I felt that and still feel this season was the worst, I don’t say in history but in the last 50 years, I don’t know.” End up 14th or worse and it will be their lowest finish since the relegation campaign of 1973-74.

Nevertheless, their compensation, in a way, might be qualifying for the Champions League once again. For Arsène Wenger, who currently holds the position of FIFA’s head of global football development but was previously a manager reaching the elite European tournament through top-four placements at Arsenal, this situation is "unfair."

Wenger has proposed that Uefa examines this in the future. For United, who didn't qualify for the Europa League through the Premier League, perhaps they have entered through not just one but two side doors.

If individuals wish to alter the regulations, let them do so — however, under current guidelines, qualifying for the Champions League through winning the Europa League remains valid," Amorim remarked with a shrug. "While I understand that the Champions League typically rewards championship-winning teams or top performers from their leagues, they have devised an alternative method to boost participation.

And United might become champions in some sense. At least one iteration of United has the potential to do so. Since, as Amorim acknowledged, multiple versions exist and even he isn’t sure which one will show up when it truly counts.

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