Manchester United coming to town

By Mike Finnerty

MANCHESTER United will face off against La Liga side Athletic Bilbao at a sold-out Aviva Stadium on August 6th.

General admission tickets went on sale yesterday morning and were quickly snapped up by eager football fans, with the Ticketmaster app informing fans that all tickets were sold out within 20 minutes.

Erik Ten Hag’s men will be looking to gain match sharpness ahead of the new Premier League season, and their Basque counterparts will serve as decent competition ahead of the new season.

The Aviva showdown will serve as United’s final pre-season fixture before they return to Premier League action on August 14th against Wolves.

Stars like Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and Casemiro will be strutting their stuff at a sold-out Aviva Stadium, while Bilbao’s squad contain stars like Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simón, brothers Iñaki and Nico Williams adding attacking depth to the side, and one-man club Iker Muniain leading the line for the Basque County outfit.

The Aviva is gearing up for a blockbuster year with Stephen Kenny’s men looking to secure a spot at next year European Football Championships in Germany as well as hosting the Europa League Final next May.

The 51,700 capacity stadium was initially set to host a series of games at Euro 2020 as part of a one-off Pan-European tournament to mark the tournaments 60th anniversary, but Dublin later lost bidding rights as a result of restrictions surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

With this match selling out in such a short space of time, the demand for high-profile football clashes among Irish football fans is evident.

Manchester United’s director of football John Murtough, said: “United has such strong connections with Ireland, being the birthplace of great players such as George Best, Roy Keane and Denis Irwin.”

“We know how passionate our Irish supporters are and it’s a pleasure to be able to bring this game to Dublin.”

The August match will serve as United’s third visit to the Aviva, with the Red Devils playing a League of Ireland XI in a curtain-raiser event for the Aviva upon it’s opening in 2010.

United’s most recent visit to the Aviva came in 2017 in the form of a game against fallen Italian giants Sampordia.

Manchester United returned to some form of respectability last season with their third-place Premier League finish securing Champions League football for the Red Devils, while Bilbao secured their second consecutive 8th place finish in La Liga.

Bilbao are famous in world football for only signing players who were born in the Basque region or Spain or trained at clubs in the region, which has led to stars such as Aymeric Laporte, recent treble winner with Manchester City, World Cup winner Javi Martinez and Football Manager legend Fernando Llorente lining out for the club over the years.