Manchester United star hints at Ruben Amorim plan to beat Athletic Bilbao in Europa League

Man Utd were beaten by Brentford on Sunday and next up is Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League semi-final.

Mason Mount has urged Manchester United to prepare for the Europa League semi final second leg against Athletic Bilbao as if the tie was 0-0, despite having a 3-0 advantage from the first leg.

United placed one foot in the Europa League final last week thanks to an excellent performance in the Basque Country, which sealed a comfortable victory at the Estadio de San Mames.

Casemiro got on the scoresheet, Bruno Fernandes scored a brace and Bilbao crumbled under the pressure. The Spaniards have the best defensive record in La Liga, but conceded three against United in the first half, leaving themselves with a mountain to climb in Manchester on Thursday night.

Mount opened the scoring against Brentford in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, and the Bilbao game was on the agenda at the end of his post-match interview in London.

"There's a huge game coming, but today was the most important game and the lads who started and everybody who travelled wanted to win this game," said a disappointed Mount.

"That's what we spoke about. We tried to play well, tried to create chances and score goals, but we left it a little bit too late and then, with the position we were in, it was difficult to come back from.

"Tough to take, but we'll look to Thursday because it's a huge game at home.

"We'll do everything we can, recover, get ready and be prepared. Look at the game as if it is 0-0. It's a massive game at home with the atmosphere. We know what happened last time when we played at home, so we'll attack the game and we know what we need to do.

"We want to get ourselves in the final and know it's going to be a tough, tough game."

Bilbao's manager, Ernesto Valverde, has promised his side will not give up in the tie, saying: "We didn't manage the first goal, that tension. And the sending off and the penalty conditioned the game.

"We were good when it was 11 vs 11 and we had chances, but we didn't score them. When they beat you 0-3 it means that they have been successful and we have not, in the chances we have had.

"These teams like Manchester United are unforgiving, they are very secure in the last stretch. We have to learn from this kind of thing.

"It's clear that we got a very bad result, but we have to play for the comeback. We are not going to give up on anything knowing that we have a very adverse result."

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