Athletic Bilbao vs Villarreal preview - Valverde settled in Bilbao

Posted Friday, May 22, 2015 by PA

Athletic Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde hailed signing a new contract with the Basque club by declaring he "feels identified with this club".

Valverde has signed a one-year extension with Athletic, who face Villarreal on Saturday hoping to seal a place in the Europa League next season.

The Basques occupy seventh spot and are two points ahead of Malaga, who host Sevilla at the same time as Athletic's game with Villarreal, so Athletic need a win to ensure they claim seventh and European qualification for a second year in a row.

Last year Valverde took Athletic into the Champions League for the first time in 16 years but encountered numerous potholes in his second season, with the club registering their worst ever start to a league season.

However, the team enjoyed a change of fortunes in the new year, winning six consecutive games including a hard-fought win over Real Madrid, and qualified for the final of the Copa del Rey against Barcelona next Saturday.

"I feel identified with this club and I have a lot of affection for the people I work with and feel at ease with everyone connected with the club," Valverde said.

"That's why me and the club have decided to take this step, because I presume they must be happy with the work we are doing."

The coach also explained why the club had waited so long before announcing the new deal, just weeks before his contract was due to expire.

"We agreed to wait until May to see if we could complete objectives we had for the season, and I think we have done that," he said.

"We said then we wanted to be fighting for the European places and show we had a certain amount of stability of playing in Europe for another year, and tomorrow we have the chance to do that if we beat Villarreal. We also have a historic chance against Barcelona."

Athletic are still without Iker Muniain, Ibai Gomez and Xabier Etxeita through injury, but Villarreal have even bigger concerns for the game.

Giovani dos Santos, Luciano Vietto and Antonio Rukavina are all suspended, while Tomas Pina, Denis Cheryshev, Ikechukwu Uche, Mateo Mussacchio and goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo are all injured.