Andoni Iraola is looking to guide Bournemouth to their first win at Old Trafford (Picture: Getty)
Andoni Iraola has described beating Manchester United in 2012 as ‘one of the best days’ of his football career as he looks to guide AFC Bournemouth to their first-ever win at Old Trafford on Saturday.
The Cherries have been in fine form in the Premier League and are unbeaten in their last four games, which included an impressive victory over Newcastle United.
Bournemouth, who have spent the majority of their 124-year history in the lower leagues of English football, have twice defeated United since they reached the Premier League for the first time in 2015.
Both of those wins came at the Vitality Stadium under the management of Eddie Howe and the south coast club have never registered victory at Old Trafford.
But current Cherries boss Iraola feels his side have a ‘chance’ on Saturday and has recalled one of his favourite memories in football – captaining Spanish club Athletic Bilbao to victory over United in the Europa League in 2012.
Athletic Bilbao won the first leg at Old Trafford 3-2 and finished off the Red Devils in the second leg with a 2-1 win.
‘Probably one of the best days in my football career,’ Iraola said. ‘The second game against them, I think to win in this kind of scenery, you always remember these kinds of games.
Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola helped Athletic Bilbao win at Old Trafford in 2012 (Picture: Getty)
‘We have the chance tomorrow, again. Last season, we played a friendly with Rayo Vallecano [against Manchester United].
‘But even if it’s a friendly you don’t want to lose. You want to compete. You want to do things well.
‘Tomorrow there are points involved and we still need points, because even if we are doing very well, our start of the season has been very bad. So we are still in a position where we need points.
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‘[Manchester United] are being, for me, a very efficient team, very efficient.
‘They are not conceding, especially in the league, a lot of goals and especially against teams like ours, let’s say in the second part of the standings, I think they’ve won everything except [Crystal] Palace, I think they’ve won the rest of the games.
‘So it means that when they dictate the games, when they are controlling the opposition they are just winning games.’
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‘One of the best days in my football career.’