Bielsa: I am happy to face Lisbon

The former Chile trainer has stated he is more than content to face Ricardo Sa Pinto's side in the final four of the competition, and praised Portuguese football as a whole.Athletic Bilbao coach Marcelo Bielsa has admitted he is happy to face Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League semi-finals.The Basque outfit secured a 2-2 draw with Schalke in the second leg of their quarter-final tie on Thursday evening, meaning they defeated Huub Stevens' men 6-4 on aggregate to reach the competition's final four.Athletic will now face Sporting for a place in the final and although Bielsa revealed his admiration for the game in Portugal, he is more than content with the prospect of facing Ricardo Sa Pinto's side."Portuguese football is very attractive and I am happy to compete with them [Sporting Lisbon] as they belong to the hierarchy of football in the country," he told reporters after the Schalke draw.Discussing the performance against the Gelsenkirchen outfit, Bielsa admitted the result on the night was fair on both teams."To say it was more difficult than expected is to think that it could have been easy, and we never thought that this rival was going to be easy. The draw was fair, it was a positive result," he added.The Basque side will now return to Liga action at the weekend where they will face a home encounter against Sevilla.