Athletic Bilbao B
Bilbao Athletic, officially named Athletic Club "B", is the reserve team of Athletic Bilbao, a football club based in Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. The team will play in the Segunda División B in the 2018–19 season. Founded in 1964, the team holds home matches at the small stadium attached to the club's training facility at Lezama, or occasionally at San Mamés Stadium, with its 53,500-seat capacity, for important fixtures.
Athletic Bilbao in European football
Athletic, coached by Ernesto Valverde, made a comeback to continental competition in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, their only participation in that tournament's five-club group stage involving one match against each opponent. Revenge for the defeat a decade earlier was achieved with a home win over Parma in the opening fixture, and progression to the next stage was achieved in style by defeating Standard Liège 7–1 in Belgium, the club's biggest-ever win in Europe (Santiago Ezquerro scoring three). However, these positive results proved to be a false dawn as an underwhelming loss in the first knockout round to an Austria Wien side inspired by Libor Sionko followed. In the aftermath of the defeat, Valverde announced he would be leaving the club at the season's end after disputes with the hierarchy.