United's Gritty Win Over Athletic Bilbao

Alright Reds! Ben here, and what a night it was! Seriously, just wow. We've practically got one foot in the final after that performance against Athletic Bilbao. Did that just happen? Another one of those special European nights that you just soak in.

WATCH THE MATCH REVIEW HERE!

But you know me, even with the buzz and the excitement, we need to talk about the nitty-gritty, don't we? And that's what I love about Manchester United. Last night was amazing. We won. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't like Barcelona or Inter Milan. Nah, it wasn't. It wasn't any of that. It wasn't pretty at all. But we got the result, and this is what we're here to talk about. This is what we are celebrating. We are happy because we are moving forward.

Speaking of moving forward, Tottenham also grabbed a 3-1 win against Bodø/Glimt. What does that mean? Are we setting up for an all-English final? Like Manchester United vs. Tottenham? That would be something, wouldn't it?

But last night was very enjoyable. Very weird game. Starts off as it always starts off with us. We are not too sure. We are uneasy. Um, you know what? Let's talk about this. Let's talk about this.

So the starting lineup, yes, I got it wrong. I got one or two players wrong. I had put Kobbie Mainoo in my team. I had also put Luke Shaw in my team. They didn't play. Now, those are the only two players that I missed out in my starting lineup. And I honestly still don't understand why, but yeah, we will get to it.

But the game starts, and it had a very slow start to it, and we didn't even help our case because our guys were not composed. Our guys on the ball—I don't know what it is. This has been happening throughout the season, by the way. This inability to take care of the ball from the moment we start the game. This inability for us to string some passes together, you know, and create something. It's a hassle. It's always a low IQ player, somebody who's younger or something, is just going to mess up the flow or whatever it is that's happening within the team because the first 20 minutes, 25 minutes were not the nicest football I've seen.

I was almost disgusted to a certain extent because it's like, what's happening? These guys get the ball. We can't keep it. We can't trap the ball. We can't pass and find our men. Every time we're giving a pass, it's either behind or it is intercepted or it goes straight. And these are the basics. As a football player, if you call yourself a professional, these are not the things that we talk about in interviews and stuff like that. Managers don't like to speak about these things because these are small issues. These are issues that you should have. You are called a professional for a reason. As a professional, you are supposed to already know the basics: how to pass, how to control the ball, how to trap, how to, you know, these are things that you are taught at academy level.

And before you become a professional, it is impossible for you to be a professional and give passes like that. So the whole team—like everybody maybe except Noussair Mazraoui, Harry Maguire, and Leny Yoro—like the backline was okay in terms of passing in the beginning stages of that game. Everybody else was off. Everybody—I'm talking Bruno Fernandes, I'm talking Kobbie Mainoo—everybody was just off. You can call those things the jitters. You know, the game had just started. These guys were still feeling themselves. They were still feeling each other out, which I completely understand.

But it carried on. It carried on. My issue is in moments like this when we win, we tend to forget about certain things. And yesterday, those things came out. But listen, we won. We are through. Casemiro—I don't know if he was your man of the match, but he was my man of the match. That guy again—I told you, V12—that engine needs to purr. Then you get Bruno there doing his thing, orchestrating. Bruno is a legend of the club. So, that's why yesterday's win was amazing.

People are like, are you upset as a Man United fan? You're upset? Oh, you're not happy? Are you joking, bro? We are unbeaten in one of the worst Premier League campaigns ever. And here we are on the verge—like, we are literally a foot into the final. Literally, like next week it's draw or we win and win double—like, whatever you want to call it. There's no losing here. We're meeting either Tottenham or Bodø/Glimt—it doesn't matter. But the final—we are en route to the final, and that's all that matters.

I know as Manchester United fans, we cannot be like, "Ah, we're going to the final, we're doing this thing." I understand that. But nah, based on how we've been playing and everything like that, I can confidently say we are going to the final. Are we going to win the final? You'll have to wait for that next preview when we now know who our opponents are, and we're now building towards that final, and I'll tell you who will win this. But let me tell you something right now—as a superstitious brother, as somebody that believes in the football gods and mysteries and everything football that is spiritual, whatever you want to call it—I do. I believe it.

As I'm telling you right now, it's shaping up to be a very good season for Manchester United. I don't want to jinx it. I don't want to be like, "Oh, and say this." No, I'm just confidently saying that this is my club. We are going to the final, and there's a high chance that we could win this trophy, which will be very good because financially we'll get a boost. European football is guaranteed, meaning that next season we know that we're going to have some co-op so that we can, you know, finance things because we don't have, and then the rest—it's up to the boys and the gaffer to bring in players and all that stuff.

Thursday's game was beautiful to watch. Absolutely amazing. Big ups to the guys. Please, please smash a like for the boys yesterday because yo, that game was nice. Thank you, everybody, for listening to the Glory Reds podcast. It's me, Don Bonito. Peace.