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Luckhurst: Why Manchester United are sticking to their pre-match plan for Europa League final

Bruno Fernandes poses for his Europa League final portrait

A Manchester United fan, clad in the 1992-94 green and gold away shirt, jauntily strode through Liverpool John Lennon Airport on Monday morning. He was undeterred by the first souvenir shop beyond security, teeming with 'Champions 2025' merchandise.

The dynamic pricing forced United supporters and us journalists to scan for flights away from Manchester Airport on SkyScanner. John Lennon Airport has only one terminal and, being down the East Lancs Road, is a reasonable compromise.

At departure gate D88 at Palma de Mallorca Airport, the Bilbao-bound United fans were not as rare. Someone had a bucket hat on and another wore his scarf. Neither attire was appropriate for the torrential rain in the Basque Country.

Some attending Wednesday's match are staying in Bilbao, San Sebastian, Santander and Vitoria. Uefa have picked a superb city and super stadium in Bilbao but it does not have the infrastructure to cope with an influx of English football fans.

Athletic Bilbao fans bill San Mames as "the cathedral of football" and a banner bearing those words greets the arrivals at Bilbao Airport. On my travels through Spain - this is my 12th visit to the country to watch United - Bilbao is its most football-centric city.

Matchday for the semi-final first leg was akin to a host nation during a major tournament, only more fervent. It was a public holiday in Spain, kids were kicking balls in the streets and you had not seen so many replica shirts.

Some may feel it is a travesty that Athletic have been denied a final in their own city. Yes, United are 16th and, domestically, have not been this bad since the year The Godfather Part 2 was released. Yet they did vanquish Athletic 7-1 on aggregate. They have earned their one-shot at salvation.

Tottenham flew to Bilbao on Monday. United are scheduled to fly at 3pm on Tuesday. Spurs are training at San Mames whereas United will train at Carrington. Ange Postecoglou's pre-match press conference at San Mames is at 1645. Ruben Amorim is scheduled to speak at 1930.

United had a meeting with Uefa about landing slots at Bilbao Airport. The airport felt tiny accommodating a couple of thousand United fans when they flew in two seasons ago and in recent months, never mind the arrival of tens of thousands of English football fans.

Superstitious supporters may start to get twitchy. Have Spurs gone too early? Are United going too late? United's itinerary is in keeping with their European schedule this season: train at home, afternoon flight and evening press conference. 3pm is their usual departure time for a European away game.

The Europa League trophy on display at San Mames on Monday

Their timekeeping has improved in recent rounds. In Porto, the fog that swirled around Portuguese airspace delayed United's landing slot and their pre-match press conference was pushed back by more than two hours. Diogo Dalot was excused to prioritise his pre-match meal 24 hours before kick-off.

United regressed during a crammed Uefa media day at Carrington and Old Trafford last week. The player interviews were pencilled in for 1330. Noussair Mazraoui was escorted to our pen on the Stretford End concourse at 1542. Amad turned up at 5pm. With the United press department spread so thin, the chief communications officer was conspicuous by his absence.

It is not overconfidence from United that they are departing 29 hours before the referee blows his whistle. Spurs have fielded shadow sides in their last two games, little more than fitness tests for Son Heung-min.

A giant Europa League final match ball by the Guggenheim

It has not been an eternity since Spurs last reached a European final. Merely six years. Son is the sole survivor from that all-English non-event against Liverpool.

Both clubs made it to Madrid through inconceivable comebacks. The difference for Liverpool after their recovery against Barcelona was they had been there, done that. Tottenham hadn't. So their players savoured Lucas Moura's kick past Andre Onana for as long as their delirious supporters were locked inside the Amsterdam Arena.

Danny Rose clutched a bottle of beer. You knew then, 24 days before the final, that Spurs did not have a prayer. The gulf in mentality between the clubs made a sixth European Cup for Liverpool a fait accompli.

What awaits the winners

Many of a United persuasion are banking on their pedigree. United's worst team in decades last season salvaged it with their greatest performance of the post-Ferguson era. The current lot are doubly worse, 16th to last season's eighth, yet plundered 19 goals in six European knockout ties.

Spurs have the edge on United in goal, at centre back, full back, up front and have arguably more technically rounded midfielders. The caveat is United have the matchwinners. Amad was a one-man band in attack until injury and Bruno Fernandes picked up the baton.

Leny Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt would be genuine losses and Amorim would be well-advised to pick a back three featuring one centre back. But United's centre-back losses are not as considerable as those of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, two of Tottenham's most influential footballers.

Amad and Fernandes are game-deciding players, which offsets the blunt instrument Rasmus Hojlund. United regimes past and present have recruited two 20-year-old Denmark internationals for inflated fees, deemed them to be good enough to start and neither are. Yet Hojlund and Patrick Dorgu will start in Bilbao.

They will hope to have gold medals, rather than be green in the face.

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