page_title: Athletic Bilbao in European football
section_title: Early 2010s: Europa League final
hierarchical_section_title: Athletic Bilbao in European football / History / Early 2010s: Europa League final
caption_attribution_description: English: Javier Martinez, Spanish footballer at the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.
context_page_description: Athletic Bilbao, a professional football club based in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain, has competed in international tournaments as representatives of La Liga since 1956. The club's first entry into an official competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations was the European Cup in 1956–57 as national champions; they reached the quarter-finals.
  Athletic have yet to win a continental trophy in 32 attempts, up to and including the 2017–18 campaign. They finished runners-up in the two-legged 1977 UEFA Cup Final, losing to Juventus on the away goals rule, and in the 2012 UEFA Europa League Final which finished 3–0 to compatriots Atlético Madrid. The club have twice reached the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, in 1998–99 and 2014–15, but did not qualify for the next phase on either occasion.
  The striker Aritz Aduriz contributed 34 European goals for the club over a six-year spell from 2012 to 2018, winning the Europa League's top scorer award twice. The player with the most appearances, winger Markel Susaeta, was also heavily involved in that period as well as during the 2011–12 Europa League.
context_section_description: Marcelo Bielsa became Athletic coach in 2011, with his first competitive fixture a Europa League tie at home to Trabzonspor which ended 0–0. A difficult second leg on the Black Sea coast was in prospect, but this was cancelled when Fenerbahçe were expelled from the Champions League, with Trabzonspor taking the place in that competition and Athletic progressing in the Europa League by default. The club took full advantage of that piece of good fortune, winning the group ahead of Paris Saint-Germain before eliminating Lokomotiv Moscow in the last 32.
  Athletic were then drawn against Manchester United and won 3–2 in the first leg at Old Trafford, going on to knock the three-time European champions out of the tournament with a 2–1 victory at home (a long-awaited 'revenge' win from 1957). Fernando Llorente and Óscar de Marcos both scored in each leg of the tie, with the manner of their performances described as "a footballing lesson" in the media.
  In the quarter-final, they travelled to Schalke 04 of Germany and won the first leg 4–2, despite being 2–1 down on 72 minutes after a Raúl brace. The sides drew 2–2 in the second leg, allowing Athletic to progress to the semi-final against Sporting CP. A few hours after the match in Bilbao, an incident of disorder occurred near the stadium, during which Athletic supporter Iñigo Cabacas was shot in the head with a 'Flash-ball' fired by a member of the Ertzaintza police service and later died. Five years later, charges were brought against officers commanding the vehicles that attended the scene, with a trial date set for October 2018.
  Athletic lost the semi-final first leg in Portugal 2–1 after initially taking the lead through Jon Aurtenetxe, but prevailed 3–1 at home with goals from Markel Susaeta, Ibai Gómez and the winner by Llorente in the 89th minute in front of a fervent home crowd to edge into the final in Bucharest, 4–3 on aggregate; Bielsa's adventurous tactics led to 28 goals being scored and 20 conceded across the six group games and eight knockout matches during the run. Llorente scored seven times, while Muniain and Susaeta got five each.
  The 2012 UEFA Europa League Final at the Arena Nationala proved a step too far for Athletic as they lost 3–0 to Spanish rivals Atlético Madrid (formed a century earlier by fans of Athletic as an offshoot of the original Bilbao club), The two clubs had shared league wins during the season, but on the day Atlético were inspired by the forward play of Radamel Falcao and won comfortably. A group of supporters had a double disappointment as they charted a flight to the wrong destination, mistaking Budapest for Bucharest. In an unwelcome echo of 1977, Athletic followed up their European final defeat with a loss in the 2012 Copa del Rey Final, again by a 3–0 scoreline.
  The team did not break up entirely following the 2012 campaign. The three most prominent players who did depart all won European medals in the subsequent years: Javi Martínez (Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2013), Fernando Llorente (Europa League with Sevilla in 2016, having lost a Champions League final with Juventus twelve months earlier) and Ander Herrera (Europa League with Manchester United in 2017).
  As runners-up to Champions League qualifiers Barcelona, Athletic made an immediate return to the Europa League in 2012–13. The qualifying rounds saw the team achieve both their biggest ever home win (6–0) against Finland's HJK, and their highest aggregate margin of victory – the second leg finished 3–3 for a six-goal difference. The group stage was reached, but disappointing results, including two defeats to Lyon and failure to beat debutants Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona of Israel at home, led to an early exit. The final continental fixture at the original San Mamés stadium prior to its demolition was a 0–0 draw against Sparta Prague in December 2012. The club had a strong home record at the century-old venue, losing only six times in 76 European matches there.
caption: After the 2012 campaign, Javi Martínez moved to Bayern Munich and soon won the Champions League
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