Boss Rues Defending

Sir Alex Ferguson feels Manchester United could still reach the Europa League quarter-finals - but only if his side improve in defence after losing an open game at Old Trafford.

The boss felt the Reds' second successive home defeat in Europe was fair, given how well the visitors Athletic Club played and how his team failed to stop Fernando Llorente, Oscar de Marcos and Iker Muniain from scoring the three away goals.

"We were well beaten," Sir Alex admitted. "Athletic Club Bilbao were the better team, they were very aggressive in terms of their attacking and pressing the ball. Their system caused us problems. All teams do that away from home - they overload the midfield which can cause you problems.

"When we went to three midfielders in the second half we seemed to get better and get a grip of the game and our attacking play was pretty good then. The attacking part wasn’t a problem for us really, but our defending wasn't very good and it kept us on the back foot all the time. It was very loose, particularly in the first half.

"Without David De Gea, we could have conceded four or five goals. He was superb. He made maybe four or five terrific saves in the game."

De Gea had little chance for the first goal - the close-range header scored by Llorente - and Sir Alex feels the second one he conceded, from Oscar de Marcos, should have been chalked off.

"The second goal put us on the back foot again. I thought it was offside and if it had been disallowed, I think we could have won the game. Maybe not deservedly but I think we could have won it."

As for Athletic Club's killer third strike, Sir Alex queried the referee's decision to stop play when Patrice Evra kicked the ball without his boot on. When the resulting free-kick was pumped upfield, Iker Muniain fired home the rebound from another stunning save.

"The ref said to the players that you can’t play without a boot. It seems a bit bizarre as Patrice only passed the ball about three feet. It was a bit unfortunate."

Looking ahead to next Thursday's return match, Sir Alex said: "We can win the game, I don't think there's any question about that. We showed tonight we can make chances against them. Obviously we're going to have to defend better, that goes without saying."

Sir Alex had praise for the opposition fans who travelled in numbers rarely seen for a European club coming to Old Trafford - "when visiting teams bring that number of fans it makes for a great atmosphere" - and also for his opposite number Marcelo Bielsa, Athletic Club's Argentine coach.

"His team probably mirror himself. The work ethic of their team is fantastic. They worked harder than us tonight. That’s the way he’s built his team to work as hard as that and press the ball everywhere on the pitch. They never stopped running. They had a two-hour training session yesterday – one hour in the morning at our old training ground and one last night so they trained for two hours and still put that effort in tonight. It tells you everything about them."