A few hundred metres from the Guggenheim Museum, Manchester United painted an unlikely, unforgettable picture of their own. It felt more surrealist than modern art but a team who had been failing and floundering at home, who risked being officially the worst United side in decades, entered one of the most intimidating atmospheres any of them will encounter, went 3-0 up in the first half of a European semi-final and dominated. Nothing, Ruben Amorim had said, could save their season, but that was before the finest night of his reign, before a return to the Champions League, which once looked a pipe dream, felt all too real. Before this. “Nobody expected this result,” said Amorim. It was, he willingly admitted, the best of his tenure.
It prompted the question of where this United had been all season but if the answer was in Bilbao, in the San Mames, that is fortuitous. United can plan for a return in the final, perhaps to face Tottenham, the Premier League’s two greatest underachievers duelling for European glory. For Athletic Bilbao, the incentive of a hometown final could turn into a first-hand illustration of what they could have won, their ambitions crushed in 16 minutes of cruelty as United scored three times. “One foot in the final,” said Harry Maguire, whose right foot had acquired magical properties.
