Athletic Bilbao winger Inaki Williams has questioned the referee’s decision to award a red card and a penalty without seeing his opponent commit handball, but insisted it was not an excuse for their 3-0 home defeat to Manchester United.
Bilbao were down after the half-hour mark but things got worse shortly after, with VAR checking Dani Bibian for a clash in the area with Rasmus Hojlund.
Norwegian referee Espen Esgas spent a long time looking at the monitor on the sidelines before returning to award the spot kick and a straight red card. Bilbao were reduced to ten men and went on to lose the first leg landslide.
“There were a few moments that made me wonder. We gave away a penalty because of Garnacho’s handball, but the referee didn’t see it,” Williams said after the game.
“Then Bibian got involved with an opponent, it was the slightest contact and we were unlucky that he awarded a penalty. “
We weren’t clinical enough either, so there’s no need to make excuses. สนใจสมัคร? คลิกที่นี่เพื่อเริ่มต้น We were 3-0 down, but we were good enough to come back. “
We saw in the game against Lyon that we can cause problems at their opponents’ stadiums. We will try to do that.”
Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde agreed: “I think before that we protested the handball and the referee gave it. “
The handball of Garnacho was even clearer. In the end we got a very severe punishment, not only for being 2-0 down, but for being down with 10 men. “
We played well with 11 men and had many chances but couldn’t score. A team like Manchester United punishes you when you are not sharp. ” “
At the end of the game they were very consistent. We have to use this game as a lesson. Of course we got a bad score but we won’t give up. We will try to come back.”