Athletic Club welcome Manchester United to Bilbao on Thursday for a mouth-watering Europa League semi-final first leg and a post on TikTok has ignited the occasion.
Man Utd are in the Basque Country knowing they need to win the Europa League to salvage their season. Ruben Amorim‘s team produced a sensational comeback victory over Lyon to get through the quarter-finals and the build-up this time around has been somewhat quieter.
But it wouldn’t be an away leg in the latter stages of European competition if it didn’t come with a little incendiary social media baggage and Athletic obliged in the hours before the match with a TikTok post promising the Red Devils that they can expect quite the welcome when they stride out on the field to face the Lions.
“Welcome to San Mames,” proclaimed the post. “Welcome to Hell.”
Those last three words carry plenty of extra meaning. It’s a reference to Man Utd’s infamous visit to Istanbul to take on Galatasaray in 1993, when home fans turned the stadium into a cauldron around a ‘Welcome to Hell’ banner and ugly scenes followed Eric Cantona‘s late red card.
Red Devils fans on social media have had their say on Athletic’s pre-match video, not least to point out that the Red Devils are well acquainted with Hell already.
“Be original ffs” zinged one fan on X, formerly Twitter.
“Bilbao apparently don’t know where the Red Devils live,” posted another, who definitely isn’t taking it all too seriously.
“Hell or not, we’ve walked through worse and came out stronger,” said one United fan. “Bring it on, San Mames, United don’t scare easy.”
Eric Cantona was sent off last time Man Utd visited Hell (Image: Getty)
One truth-sayer posted that it, “looked less terrifying than Stoke away” while another asked: “Are we supposed to be scared of a few farting sounds?”
“Cringe,” parped one fan on X.
“I’ll come back to this once we’re in the final,” posted one user who would definitely live up to his word.
But he’s unlikely to get the chance according to this pessimist, who might benefit from taking the evening off from fandom: “We’re going to get smashed. Simply no way with their record and our abysmal form, performances and players that they don’t beat us.
“Add in our WEAK mentality and our guaranteed mistakes. Beyond them having two completely off days over the two legs then we ain’t winning this.”
“YOU have a weak mentality,” was the only appropriate response and X didn’t disappoint.
