Sporting look to maintain top status in Europa

While Barcelona and Real Madrid chase a "Clasico" Champions League final, Sporting Lisbon are the only team that's keeping Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid and Valencia from making the Europa League finale an all-Spanish affair. Valencia travel to Atletico for the first leg of their semi-final today, while Athletic play at Sporting looking to maintain their status as favourites. Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa has managed to get the most out of Bilbao's young, talented squad, whose brazen and fearless displays have already seen the all-Basque club eliminate Manchester United and Schalke. But, not to be outdone, Sporting ended big-spending Manchester City's European ambitions by eliminating them from the quarter-finals to ensure a second straight all-Iberian final. It's now just a question of whether it will be the second all-Spanish final in five years. Bilbao already have a date with Barcelona in May's Copa del Rey final and they know reaching the May 9 Europa League final in Bucharest would make this one of their most successful seasons ever. Bilbao are without a trophy since a league and cup double in 1984 and are looking to reach a European final for the first time since losing the UEFA Cup to Juventus in 1977. "We have to play like ourselves as we always do," midfielder Ander Iturraspe said. "We're not going to speculate on the result, we're going there to win, to give it our all like we always do." Unbeaten run While fatigue and a taxing schedule seems to have impacted on Bilbao's league hopes, they haven't shown any dips in concentration in continental play. Athletic are unbeaten in the last five games in the tournament and have won four of their six away matches. Bilbao can also count on the return of forward Iker Muniain, who missed Sunday's 1-0 win over Mallorca with an eye problem, plus midfielder Carlos Gurpegui, who was included in the squad for the first time since a knee injury sidelined him in October. Defender Javi Martinez is suspended, but Bielsa still brought him with the team to Portugal. "We have experience with difficult games," said Iturraspe, one of Bilbao's surprise standouts under Bielsa.