Page "Athletic Bilbao" Paragraph 25

The 2009 – 10 season saw Athletic make steady progress in the league and in Europe.

Decent home form, including a victory over Real Madrid, led to the team sitting comfortably in the top half of the Liga and qualifying from their Europa League group, although poorer performances away from Bilbao meant that a really successful run never materialised.

In 2010, the home games often resulted in draws rather than victories, and this also proved to be the case in the Europa League, where a draw at the San Mamés against Anderlecht was followed by a heavy defeat in Belgium.

Ultimately, a promising season delivered little, with Athletic finishing eighth, just out of the European places.

But in comparison to most recent seasons.

it was an improvement.

Young stars Javi Martínez, Markel Susaeta, and Óscar de Marcos performed well, if inconsistently, providing for main striker Fernando Llorente, and 16-year-old forward Iker Muniain made a successful breakthrough into the senior squad.

At the other end of the career scale, 500-game man Joseba Etxeberria retired after 15 seasons at the club, and Francisco Yeste, who had also played over 300 games in the red-and-white shirt, left rather abruptly at the end of the campaign.