The Athletic Bilbao Courier
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Nobody could get near Oihan Sancet
Successful dribbles: 56. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match21 Aug 2027
No mercy from Athletic Bilbao
Mirandés will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Athletic Bilbao were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Gorka Guruzeta scores twice — 8.26
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Iñaki Williams, 33, rolls back the years — 8.21
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Oihan Sancet in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletic Bilbao this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Athletic Bilbao
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A late step up for Guille Rosas
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Market23 Aug 2027
One of our own: Ricardo Pascual joins the Athletic Bilbao first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ricardo Pascual is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market23 Aug 2027
Marcos Sanz steps up from the Athletic Bilbao academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marcos Sanz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
- Market Andrés Ortega steps up from the Athletic Bilbao academy
- Market Athletic Bilbao promote Manuel Serrano from within
- Player ratings Nico Williams in the eights