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The Argentine boss has urged his Spain international to learn to live with the taunts from the club's supporters after the 27-year-old was subjected to more whistles at San Mames

Athletic Bilbao coach Marcelo Bielsa believes Fernando Llorente has to take the insults directed at him from the club's fans and insisted that his decision to withdraw the striker at half-time had nothing to do with them.

The Basque outfit ended their Europa League campaign with barely a whimper as they played out a bore draw with Sparta Prague at San Mames.

After the first 45 minutes, Bielsa elected to subsititute Llorente, who had endured a torrid time from the Athletic supporters, and the coach believes the striker needs to rise above it.

"I did not take Llorente off because of the whistles," Bielsa was quoted by Marca.

"But, Llorente has to take them. This situation has already occurred a couple of times this season so he has to just get on with it. Unfortunately, it happened again to day and it will most likely happen again in the future."

While it was bad news all round for Athletic, Bielsa was encouraged by the performance of young centre-half Aymeri Laporte, who he called "the highlight of a dull, boring and uninteresting game".


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