Early red, mega blunder by World Cup winner, clear defeat: Bilbao debut turns into a fiasco for Edin Terzic

The former Borussia Dortmund head coach loses with Athletic at the start of the season in their own stadium against Sevilla 3-1. Everything went wrong.

Only ten good minutes had gone at the venerable San Mames when Bilbao's Aitor Paredes made a dreadful blunder and left team-mate Yuri Berchiche with no choice but to haul his man down professionally. The consequence: the 36-year-old was sent off. A few minutes later, Spain's World Cup-winning goalkeeper Unai Simon then played a devastating misplaced pass, and Sevilla's Oso rolled it in for 0-1 (15).

Before kick-off, Simon had proudly posed with the World Cup trophy alongside winger Nico Williams and centre-back Aymeric Laporte. The Athletic trio played an active part as Spain became world champions for the second time in New York in July.

By the break, Terzic's team were only 0-1 down despite the mistakes and had more than held their own with ten men. Then Sevilla struck twice in quick succession straight after the restart and the game was effectively over. Chidera Ejuke (50) and Isaac Romero (57) made it 0-3.

Paredes then gave the scoreline a touch of respectability with the 1-3 (70).

"I am sure we will learn from this defeat," explained Terzic, who was trying to remain positive. "I saw a good reaction after it went to 0-2. We did not give up but fought until the end."

After a two-year break, Terzic took over in Bilbao for his second spell as head coach. Previously, as interim coach, he won the DFB Cup with Borussia Dortmund in 2021.

Between 2022 and 2024, the 42-year-old was head coach at Borussia Dortmund. He narrowly missed out on the German championship in 2023 and on Champions League glory in 2024, losing only in the final against Real Madrid.