Yes, ten years have passed. It was on March 8, 2012. With Bielsa’s project in full swing, Athletic won one of the most memorable matches in the time that went from the titles of the 80s until then. The recital against Manchester United at Old Trafford has remained an iconic image of the recent era, a party that does not resist comparison against glories that have come later. That year they reached the final of the Europa League, but there was nothing to do against Atlético. And also to the Cup, but Barça was once again impregnable. The curse of the finals started in 2009 with Caparrós and that course was entrenched. Then Bielsa undertook a second year to forget and the paths of both separated. The Argentine has not gone very far in his career and has even recently been dismissed at Leeds, which he led to promotion to the Premier. The lions have had more golden stages, with Valverde and Marcelino, although also without the long-awaited Cup, ‘only’ with the Super Cup.
It was the crowning achievement of Athletic del Loco and the game that several red-and-white generations will carry in their backpacks of memories. To frame the peculiarity of the Argentine coach, it is enough to remember some words from Markel Susaeta some time later: “That morning we trained for two hours doing sprints. It was crazy.” If you walk around San Mamés on match day and ask the 40,000 regulars about the match of their lives, the vast majority will say a single word: Manchester. Whatever age you are.
In the history of Athletic, already 124 years old, this is ‘The Match’. Because it was a meeting that impacted the entire planet. And he made many fans experience what it meant to be very big. The victory at Old Trafford was 28 years later, one more that Athletic had to wait to reach a new final -the Cup final in 2009- and three before the next title -the 2015 Super Cup-.
But the really important thing about that wonderful night in England was the way it came. Knocking over an admired rival in Bilbao with a display full of arrivals and arrivals, chances and chances, waves and waves. Legend has it that incredulous local spectators said “again?” every time Athletic attacked and after the end of the clash they approached the ecstatic red-and-whites to ask them “and do you always play like that?” with faces like the surprised Alex Ferguson on the bench.
“It’s wonderful to see them play this way. They deserve to go all the way”, the legendary Scottish coach wished the ‘lions’. It was the day that Athletic understood the full dimension of De Marcos’ game, when they realized all the footballing greatness of Llorente and Javi Martínez, that Herrera was a magician with the ball and in which he was beardless at the time and now captain Muniain appeared out of nowhere to seal with 1-3 almost in the discount one of the greatest moments of fullness that the Bilbao fans have had.
There are those who still remember other moments, of which there were many, but all of them are now overshadowed by the brightness of that night in Manchester with 8,000 rojiblancos in the stands and the still revered Bielsa in Bilbao on the bench. “The memories of that game are many. The footballers who played and the 8,000 Basques who attended the game. The image of having them to my right is in my memory. That triumph was impregnated in the popular memory of Athletic fans. That day the feeling I have with Athletic and with the Basques solidified”, the man from Rosario recalled years later, already at Leeds, before returning to that ‘Theater of Dreams’ which was more so than ever for Athletic on 8 March 2012.
To remember, the line-up that Liza Bielsa put in at Old Trafford against Ferguson’s United, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, David de Gea, Chicharito Hernández and company: Iraizoz; Iraola, San José, Javi Martínez, Aurtenetxe; Iturraspe, De Marcos, Ander Herrera (Íñigo Pérez, m.84): Susaeta, Muniain and Llorente (Toquero, m.81).