Manchester United to play friendly against Athletic Club in Dublin in August

Pre-season game to be held at 51,000-capacity Aviva Stadium

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag and Marcus Rashford. PA

Manchester United are set to play a friendly against Basque side Athletic Club in Dublin on August 6 following a packed July that includes six pre-season games in Oslo, Edinburgh, New Jersey, San Diego, Houston and Las Vegas.

The game will be held at the Aviva Stadium, which seats 51,000.

United enjoy huge support in the Republic of Ireland and last played in Dublin in 2018, with Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan scoring in a 2-1 win against Italian side Sampdoria. That year, a game featuring former United players also attracted a sell-out 45,000 crowd in Cork, which was held in honour of former player Liam Miller.

Athletic Club, also known as Athletic Bilbao, finished eighth in La Liga in 2022/23, missing out on European football by one league place having finished two points behind neighbours Osasuna, who also eliminated them in the Copa del Rey semi-final in Bilbao.

Athletic only dropped out of a European place on the final day of the season after a 1-1 draw at Real Madrid. They are managed by former Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde.

Former United player Ander Herrera, 33, also plays for the club, as he did in 2012 when Marcelo Bielsa’s side beat United home and away to eliminate them from the Europa League. It remains one of the greatest performances by an away team in European football at Old Trafford.

United also played Athletic in a famous 1957 European Cup tie which will be remembered for a number of reasons.

The English and Spanish champions played the first leg in Bilbao. The January weather in northern Spain is known to be harsh and snow rendered Bilbao airport treacherous and deserted when United arrived.

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“My impression of Spain being sun and sand were based on holiday posters at railway stations so I was surprised that it was freezing,” recalled defender Bill Foulkes. “It was our first season in Europe and we were unbeaten until Bilbao gave us a real going over in front of 60,000. The pitch wasn’t good, it was covered in slush and mud and it got worse as the game continued.”

Quicker and fitter, Athletic hit United with three goals in the first half, then scored two more after a Tommy Taylor and Dennis Viollet-led United comeback in the second-half. Billy Whelan breathed some hope to make it 5-3, but United were outclassed.

“Bilbao had the best centre-half I’d ever seen, Jesus Garay,” recalled Foulkes. “He was so good that he kept Tommy Taylor quiet for most of the game and I’d never seen anybody do that.”

However, manager Matt Busby was confident he could overturn the deficit in the second leg.

“Matt instilled in us a confidence that made us think we could still handle them back in Manchester,” said Foulkes.

“But first we had to get back. There had been a snowstorm and players had to brush the wings clean of snow so that we could take off.”

That memory was accompanied by disturbingly prophetic pictures of United players clearing snow off the plane for the return flight to Manchester, which included a bumpy refuelling stop in the Channel Islands.

The second leg was on February 6, 1957, exactly a year before the Munich air disaster. Old Trafford had no floodlights so the game was held at Manchester City’s Maine Road. Seventy thousand packed the banks of terracing in the stadium, the atmosphere superb, the play frenzied.

United needed an early goal but it didn’t come and little wonder the visitors were determined to hang on.

United looked doomed, especially as the tough Basque side were playing with an extra defender. The consensus that English football was somehow superior to anything continental Europe could offer had been shattered, but Viollet put United ahead just before half time. In the 70th minute Taylor made it 2-0 to level the scores 5-5 on aggregate.

Five minutes from time one of United’s greatest victories was confirmed when Johnny Berry scored from a Taylor cross. United won 6-5, with Athletic captain Piru Gainza acknowledging that: “They play with such passion we were simply overwhelmed.”