Athletic Bilbao kept alive its hopes of playing the UEFA Europa League final at its home San Mames Stadium with a 2-0 (2-0 aggregate) win over Rangers in the second leg of their quarterfinal on Thursday.

A penalty from Oihan Sancet on the stroke of halftime and a powerful header from Nico Williams led to a fully deserved win by Athetic.

Athletic was without Inaki Williams, but controlled nearly all of the play in the first half, with Sancet seeing a shot blocked and firing over when he looked set to score, while powerful forward Maroan Sannadi was proving to be a handful for the Rangers defense.

The striker was playing in Spain's third tier just three months ago, but had arguably his best game since making the step up, and won the penalty when he was caught from behind in first-half injury time.

Winger Alex Berenguer had missed a penalty last week in Glasgow, but this time Sancet stepped up and made no mistake.

Athletic continued to control matters after the break until Rangers took a step forward midway through the second half. However, the visitor's football was limited to looking for high balls into the box, and nearly bore fruit when Athletic goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala made virtually his only save of the tie to tip Nicolas Raskin's effort onto the post and away.

The home side's second goal came 10 minutes from time when Oscar de Marcos' cross was met by Nico Williams, who powered in a header to start the celebrations that turned San Mames into a fiesta.

Athletic will now play Manchester United for a place in the final. 

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