Man United 4-1 Athletic Bilbao (7-1 agg): Mason Mount stars in stunning cameo as Red Devils rubber stamp place in the Europa League final after another Old Trafford fightback

VE Day meant just that for Manchester United. They will play in the Europa League final at the Estadio San Mames in two weeks’ time after depriving Athletic Bilbao of an invitation to their own party.

United didn’t make it easy for themselves before securing a passage to the north coast of Spain where they will meet Tottenham in an all-Premier League affair in Bilbao on May 21. Of course they didn’t.

But at least there was none of the lunacy of their quarter-final win over Lyon last month as they came from behind to flatter themselves with a 4-1 win on the night and stay unbeaten in Europe this season after 12 games.

Ruben Amorim had raised concerns that his players would ‘lose our minds’ again but they didn’t lose anything last night. 

Not the game, not the tie and not the opportunity to win a trophy that would guarantee automatic qualification to next season’s Champions League, whatever Arsene Wenger might think about it.

No, United still have something to gain from this most peculiar of seasons. Domestically, it might be a write-off but victory in Europe is not to be sniffed at.

Holding a commanding 3-0 lead for the first leg in Spain last week, they went behind to an excellent strike by Mikel Jaureguizar in the first half but turned the game around with late goals from Mason Mount, who scored twice, Casemiro and Rasmus Hojlund.

The trophy was paraded pitch-side before the game, and they will hope to give it a more permanent home at Old Trafford very soon.

United will have to play a lot better against Spurs than this though. They were nervous and disjointed in the face of a determined Bilbao team.

Amorim’s side never looked like suffering the kind of collapse he feared after letting in four goals against Lyon. But it’s a measure of how much drama United have put their head coach and fans through, that it still felt as though Bilbao scoring first might alter the complexion of this tie significantly and that almost proved to be the case.

However, United held out to deny Athletic an appearance at the San Mames in front of their own supporters, nearly 4,000 of whom came to Old Trafford dreaming of a miracle comeback.

Amorim was able to name the same starting line-up that produced one of United’s best European performances in recent memory in Spain last week, reinstating the eight players who were given a rest at Brentford on Sunday.

It was one more advantage United had over Bilbao who were without their two dangermen, brothers Nico and Inaki Williams, and leading scorer Oihan Sancet through injury, as well as the suspended Dani Vivian. Not that you would have known it from the purposeful way they set about this game from the very start.

‘We don’t care who is on the pitch, we just have to understand the characteristics. Anything can happen,’ said Amorim before kick-off.

United tried to play with composure to take the sting out of the game, but too often it led only to hesitancy and sloppiness – and Bilbao getting that important first goal just after the half hour mark.

The Basques had threatened on a couple of occasions before then, not least through Alex Berenguer, a persistent threat who twice curled wide of Andre Onana’s goal.

Then in the 31st minute Harry Maguire played a stray pass to Leny Yoro and gifted the ball to Alvaro Djalo. His shot rebounded off Yoro to Mikel Jaureguizar who had the time and space to pick his spot from 20 yards and curl a shot brilliantly into the top corner despite Onana getting a hand to the ball.

United still had enough chances on the break to kill off any hopes of a comeback before half-time.

After Maguire tangled with Maroan Sannadi to win a free-kick, Bruno Fernandes played Alejandro Garnacho through but his first touch was just a little too heavy and goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala was able to come out and smother.

Fernandes then released Patrick Dorgu who got across Gorosabel before going down in the box. After the penalty and red card for Vivian in the first half that proved so costly for Bilbao at the San Mames, they could have been forgiven for fearing the worst. But VAR official Christian Dingert agreed with German referee Daniel Siebert that there wasn’t enough contact to award a penalty.

Dorgu had the opportunity to pick out Garnacho unmarked in front of goal but fluffed his cross. Then when Garnacho squared to his teammate from the other flank, Dorgu got mixed up with Fernandes and fired straight into Bilbao captain Yeray Alvarez.

United’s best chance fell to Garnacho in the 43rd minute when Dorgu sent him clear on goal. He had the option to fire past Agirrezabala or go around him, but tried a cheeky dink over the keeper which trickled wide of the post.

United had to soak up more pressure at the start of the second half and Amorim made a triple substitution just after the hour, sending on Mount, Amad Diallo and Luke Shaw.

All three had a hand in the equaliser in the 72nd minute. Diallo ran down the right and crossed to Mount who couldn’t quite get a good enough connection with his head. Shaw played the ball back to Yoro and he fed Mount who span superbly before curling a shot into the bottom corner.

The game was up for Bilbao and United went ahead in the 79th minute. Fernandes was fouled by Unai Nunez on the right and picked himself up to curl a free kick to the near post. Casemiro had peeled away from his marked and stooped to send a header looping over Agirrezabala.

Hojlund got a third in the 85th minute, tapping home from close range after Dorgu had fed Diallo on the overlap, before Mount took advantage of Agirrezabala’s poor clearance to audaciously fire into an empty net from 50 yards.

It was Mount’s third goal in five days after 400 without one, but left a scoreline that was exceptionally harsh on Bilbao.