Ruben Amorim will be asking himself one Manchester United question after Athletic Bilbao win
"For United are going to Bilbao" was the soundtrack to watching United in Bilbao. But they will be back. Surely even the modern-day Manchester United and their astonishing commitment to the banter era can't blow this?
So commanding is this position after a first leg of scarcely believable comfort in the Basque Country that fans would have been flocking to familiar travel websites to book up flights and hotels for a return later in May.
That will be an unpalatable occasion for the locals, who were left with a seething sense of injustice at the way events unfolded in the first half of the first leg at San Mames. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a European final in your home city.
Athletic are a unique club in so many ways, including how they celebrate. This is the club that parades a trophy by floating the players and the silverware down a barge on the Nervion river that runs through the city. Their chances of winning a trophy this season have capsized.
It looked like being a different story as United rode out a shaky opening 20 minutes. They were poor in possession and committing sloppy errors inside a deafening San Mames.
Then the game turned, and it turned thanks to three players who have been crucial to this Europa League run. Casemiro scored the opening goal and was outstanding once again in a European game.
Bruno Fernandes now has six goals and an assist in five knockout ties. His penalty was nerveless after such a long delay, and his finish for his second was outstanding.
But maybe the moment the game really turned was when Harry Maguire twisted one way and another, and then another, keeping the ball close and confusing his marker, creating a yard of space to send in a pinpoint cross that Manuel