Athletic Bilbao: Basque-ing in Glory

December 2013

Athletic Bilbao 1 – 0 Conquense

Athletic Bilbao 0 – 0 Barcelona

Athletic Bilbao 10 – 0 MSK Zilina

Athletic Bilbao 1 – 0 Real Mallorca

Real Mallorca 0 – 0 Athletic Bilbao

UEFA Champions’ League Table

La Liga Table

Our Player of the Month

Iker Muniain

The boy cannot stop as he single-handedly destroyed MSK Zilina. Muniain has been fantastic this season and is even a strong contender for European Golden Boy.

Oceano’s Verdict

We got the job done this month in what was required from us. We are into the semi-finals of the Copa Del Rey and defeated Zilina as expected. Unfortunately PSG couldn’t defeat Benfica, meaning we crash out of the Champions’ League on head-to-head results. However, we are now in the Europa League and it is a tournament I see as a good opportunity to win.

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BRUGGE TO FACE BILBAO

Athletic Bilbao will face Club Brugge from Belgium in the next round of the UEFA Europa League after crashing out of the Champions’ League.

‘Los Leones’ finished 3rd in their group behind Benfica who progressed on head-to-head, meaning Bilbao will now face Club Brugge who finished 2nd in Group K.

Brugge who were runners up last season following their defeat to Tottenham in the final will be at home for the first leg before travelling to Spain on the 26th February for the 2nd leg.

The winner of the tie will eventually face either Anderlecht or Udinese in the last 16.

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January 2014

Real Zaragoza 0 – 4 Athletic Bilbao

Barcelona 4 – 1 Athletic Bilbao

Athletic Bilbao 2 – 0 Villarreal

Athletic Bilbao 3 – 0 Barcelona

Athletic Bilbao 2 – 0 Real Valladolid

Athletic Bilbao 2 – 0 Valencia

Getafe 1 – 2 Athletic Bilbao

Valencia 1 – 4 Athletic Bilbao

La Liga Table

Our Player of the Month

Iker Muniain

This guy has only gone and dazzled us once more. He’s a true pleasure to watch play and was the key player throughout most of our games.

Oceano’s Verdict

I am absolutely buzzing after that month. Boy did we get handed a full plate by Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey but we only went and told them to keep the change in the second leg to face Valencia. We absolutely battered Barcelona and then Valencia with true heart and quality, something completely unthinkable after losing 4-1. The league was left at 100% which is exactly what I expected, leaving us with a great opportunity to capitalise on points dropped by Real Madrid and Real Sociedad.

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La Liga Winter Transfers 2013/14

- Real Madrid – Carlos Tevez - £15,000,000
- Manchester United – Angel Di Maria - £12,500,000
- Atletico Madrid – Mauricio Isla - £10,250,000
- Sevilla – Adrian - £10,000,000
- Hamburg – Marc Bartra - £8,250,000
- Atletico Madrid – Lorenzo Melgarejo - £7,500,000
- Sevilla – Bojan Krkic - £6,750,000
- Atletico Madrid – Mehmet Ekici - £6,250,000
- Sevilla – Dieumerci Mbokani - £4,800,000
- Atletico Madrid – Lisandro Lopez - £4,600,000

February 2014

Athletic Bilbao 4 – 2 Real Mallorca

Valencia 0 – 2 Athletic Bilbao

Athletic Bilbao 1 – 1 Rayo Vallecano

Atletico Madrid 1 – 1 Athletic Bilbao

Espanyol 0 – 2 Athletic Bilbao

Club Brugge 1 – 0 Athletic Bilbao

Athletic Bilbao 1 – 2 Real Madrid

Athletic Bilbao 2 – 0 Club Brugge

La Liga Table

Our Player of the Month

Stephane Ruffier

Ruffier showed again this month just how important he is to our team, demonstrating his great reflexes and ability to save point blank shots. He’s looked unbeatable between the sticks at times.

Oceano’s Verdict

We could have done better this month but we got the business done. I would have liked to have between Rayo Vallecano no matter what as well as Atletico Madrid and perhaps we should have held on for a point against Real Madrid but we didn’t. Rotating is becoming slightly complicating as some players I am throwing in just aren’t doing enough. However as I said, we got crucial wins against Espanyol and Valencia meanwhile we progressed as expected to the next round of the Europa League where we will face Udinese.

DOUBLE BLOW FOR BILBAO

Athletic Bilbao have been handed two major setbacks in their pursuit of silverware this season following the injuries of Ander Iturraspe and Jonas Ramalho.

The two Spaniards were both nursing injuries from matches last month but new scans have revealed the duo will miss the remainder of the season.

Combative midfielder Iturraspe is likely to be out of action for the next three months with strained knee ligaments having played 26 times this season.

Also a big miss for Bilbao according to manager Oceano Cruz will be the versatile defender Ramalho who is out for 3 to 4 months with a severely torn hamstring.

“It’s gutting to lose two players for the rest of the campaign as we begin to enter the season’s decisive stages and we shall see what effect that has on our squad.

“One thing which will certainly happen is we will suffer with our depth in numbers. We don’t have the biggest squad and both had become a vital part of our team which makes this news harder to overcome.

“Even if both managed to recover for the final games, in this case Iturraspe would be the most likely to, we couldn’t risk him just like that and by the time he is 100% fit or in form, the season is up.

“Iturraspe is our only pure defensive midfielder and Andoni Iraola is not capable of playing every game at right back anymore so both Iturraspe and Ramalho will be missed dearly but we will try our best to cope.”