On Wednesday, in Matchday 6 of the 2025-2026 Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain faced Athletic Bilbao at the San Mamés Stadium. Ernesto Valverde, the Spanish team’s coach, spoke at a press conference after the 0-0 draw.
Valverde: “Unai Simon clearly kept us in the game.”
A good result?
Yes, it’s a very good draw because it was a very difficult match. Very complicated, against the champions. We really had to work extremely hard from the first minute to the last. Obviously, we knew that if they managed to break out of our press, we could have difficulties.
We tried to press them a bit higher up the pitch. And in this type of match, you also have to consider that if you want to take something positive away from it or have chances to win, your goalkeeper has to be good. And today, Unai Simon clearly kept us in the game. His saves, especially those that allowed us to go into halftime at 0-0, really helped us.
Valverde: “They had the clearest opportunities.”
That reinforced what we were doing. And there were other moments when he kept us in the game, like during our poor spell in the second half, those ten minutes before we got back into the game.
With our momentum, and with the support of the fans today, who really helped and pushed us, we were able to create some chances. But we also acknowledge that they had the clearest opportunities.
