Match Pack: Athletic Club vs IF Elfsborg (Europa League MD5)

Having now passed the halfway point of the league phase, Athletic Club are well on their way to the Europa League knockout rounds. With ten points out of a possible 12, the Lions are now focused on finishing among the top eight, which would put them straight into the last 16 without having to play an extra round.

A good result against IF Elfsborg in San Mamés would be an important step towards that goal before our back-to-back trips to Turkey to face Fenerbahçe and Besiktas and our league-phase closer against Viktoria Plzen.

The Swedes come to The Cathedral in 24th place, the final position for the cut-off to qualify for the play-offs. So far they have registered a 1-0 win over AS Roma, a 1-1 draw with SC Braga and two defeats against AZ Alkmaar 3-2 and Galatasaray 4-3. Meanwhile, they have finished seventh in this season's Allsvenskan.
 

Match Info
Athletic Club vs IF Elfsborg

San Mames, Bilbao

Europa League 24/25 (League Phase Matchday 5)

Thursday November 28, 18:45 CET

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How to Watch 
Check out our global TV guide to make sure you don't miss the match 
 

Valverde and Yuri
Catch up with everything the gaffer and player had to say at their respective press conferences 
 

 

Matchday Squad

Ernesto Valverde has named a 24-man team for the clash in Bilbao.

The only major absence is Yuri Berchiche, who is out with a back injury. 
 

 

The Opponents

Currently celebrating its 100 year anniversary, IF Elfsborg was founded as Boras Fotbollslag in 1904 by a group of 19 young teenagers and two years later took its current name. Elfsborg was an amateur club for decades and now has 14 different sporting sections.

Elfsborg made a top-flight debut in 1926 and since then have won six league titles, three cups, two Intertoto trophies and one Swedish Super Cup. In the 21st century, ‘Di Gule’ (The Yellows) have qualified for Europe nine times, but until this season had not taken part in a continental competition since 2006.

The club is based in Boras, a city with a population of 115,000 located in southwest Sweden. They play their matches at the Boras Arena, which has a capacity of 16,000 spectators.

 

Head coach: Oscar Hiljemark

The 32-year-old coach started his footballing career at IF Elfsborg and subsequently played for several European teams such as PSV Eindhoven, Palermo, Genoa, Dinamo Moscow, Panathinaikos and Aalborg BK. After winning the European Under-21 Championship with Sweden in 2015, he then became a senior international and took part in Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.

After hanging up his boots, he became assistant coach at Aalborg in 2021 and took over on an interim basis a year later. This season, he has taken his first step into management with his former club, taking over from Jimmy Thelin, who spent six years in charge of their dugout before leaving to become the Aberdeen manager.

 

Standout players: 

Elfsborg's squad includes six Swedish internationals (Sebastien Holmen, Johan Larsson, Simon Hedlund, Per Frick, Niklas Hult and Isak Petterson) and two other players represent Sweden's Under-21s (Ahmed Qasem and Leo Ostman).

Their foreign players include Terry Yegbe, Michael Baidoo and Jalal Abdullai (Ghana), Eggert Aron Gudmunsson and Andri Baldursson (Iceland), Jens Jakob Thomasen and Emil Holten (Denmark), brothers Arber and Besfort Zeneli (Kosovan internationals with Albanian roots), Rami Kaib (born in Sweden but represents Tunisia), Timothy Ouma (Kenya) and Ibrahim Buhari (Nigeria).

 

Athletic Club-Sweden connections

This will be the first meeting between Athletic Club and IF Elfsborg, but in 2017 we faced Östersunds FK, then coached by Graham Potter.

The clash at The Cathedral ended 1-0 with Aritz Aduriz scoring the goal, while Aduriz and Iñaki Williams were on the scoresheet as the Lions' drew 2-2 in Scandinavia. Athletic have also played four friendlies against IFK Göteborg and Örgryte IS