Marseille 0-1 Athletic Bilbao (2016)

Marseille 0-1 Athletic Bilbao
Europa League Knockout Stages (Last 32, First Leg)
Thursday 18th February 2016

This was the final game of my maiden 'voyage' through Europe in 2016 and it's one which lives in the memory thanks to a thunder-strike from Aritz Aduriz.

Athletic Bilbao are one of the most-fascinating clubs on the continent due to their principles of only signing local players who were born in the region. They hail from the Basque Country - an area which wants its own independence from Spain, so it's almost like watching a national team when you get to see them play. They get huge, fervent and a massively-passionate backing wherever they travel, so when players leave to sign for other teams it's often the case that their supporters can't fathom out why because Athletic Bilbao is the biggest club in the world in their eyes.

Meanwhile, Marseille have some of the most intense supporters in France - they're loud, partisan and hugely proud of their working class roots and hard-working upbringing, even though they've been starved of success in recent years due to the mega-millions which have been pumped into Paris Saint-Germain in order to make them successful.

Therefore, this promised to be a decent contest between two genuine heavyweights in their own right - and it took place at the magnificent Stade Velodrome which, since being redeveloped is one of the most iconic venues in Europe (and very worthy of a visit).

I'd travelled to the port city on an overnight bus and spent much of the afternoon in and around Vieux Port with Bilbao's travelling contingent who were clearly enjoying their away day.

Unsurprisingly, as day turned into night and sunset passed, there were clashes between the two sets of fans which can be found on YouTube. I didn't see much of it as I'd managed to get off the metro at the wrong stop (Rond-Point du Prado) as opposed to the other one (Saint-Marguerite Dromel) which is pretty much adjacent to the stadium - which looks even more magnificent under the floodlights than it does during daylight hours!

The game actually wasn't the best because both teams nullified each other for long periods without a vast amount of goalmouth action. That was before Aduriz's dipping 35-yard first-time volley which was one of those 'F**king hell' moments - on a par with Alan Shearer's thunder-b*stard strike for Newcastle against Everton back in the day. Marseille seemed shell-shocked for a while and were pretty rudderless all over the pitch thereafter, desperately lacking the ability to get the ball so far forward that they might actually be able to find an equaliser.

It came as little surprise that Bilbao emerged as 1-0 winners and they subsequently made it through to the Last 16, just a week later, with a 1-1 draw on home soil in the second leg - although again, it was an occasion which saw violent clashes between the two sets of supporters.

Weirdly, looking back, Steven Fletcher (now at Sheffield Wednesday) played in this game for Marseille. He was on loan from Sunderland at the time and it's probably one of those moves which everyone has forgotten actually happened, until they're reminded about it.