6 mins: Valencia would presumably have discussed the importance of scoring the first goal and keeping a clean sheet. Two minutes, that lasted. They mount an attack and win a corner, but nothing comes of it.
GOAL! Valencia 0-1 Atalanta (Ilicic, 3 mins)
The VAR check complete, Ilicic thumps his penalty low and hard, straight down the middle, and it’s 1-5 on aggregate!
Penalty to Atalanta!
2 mins: Less than 100 seconds on the clock and Ilicic runs from the right into the area, gets to the byline, cuts back, is clipped by Mouctar Diakhaby, and Atalanta can kill the game here (surely).
1 min: Peeeeeeep! Atalanta get the game started, and immediately hoist the ball into touch on the right wing.
No handshakes, mind. So there’s nothing now standing between us and football, except a referee’s whistle.
And out they come! Anthems, kids waving a giant Champions League football logo thing in the centre circle, and not a fan to be seen. Looks like they have turned on the big screens, though. For the ball boys, presumably.
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It may help you to know that Uefa reckon Valencia will line up like this:
While they think Atalanta will play something like this:
The teams!
Tonight’s teams have been announced, and here they are:
Valencia: Cillessen, Wass, Coquelin, Diakhaby, Gaya, Torres, Parejo, Kondogbia, Carlos Soler, Gameiro, Rodrigo. Subs: Domenech Jaume, Goncalo Guedes, Cheryshev, Lee, Sobrino, Florenzi, Guillamon.
Atalanta: Sportiello, Djimsiti, Caldara, Palomino, Hateboer, de Roon, Freuler, Gosens, Pasalic, Ilicic, Gomez. Subs: Tameze, Czyborra, Muriel, Malinovsky, Castagne, Rossi, Zapata.
Referee: Ovidiu Alin Hategan (Romania).
Hello world!
I had the great pleasure of watching the first leg of this game, played in front of a baying, wildly entertained audience at the San Siro in Milan. Those were different times, more innocent times. There will be no fans tonight, but there will probably be goals: it’s more than a month since either side last kept a clean sheet, and in their most recent league game Atalanta thrashed Lecce 7-2. That was 10 days ago, the only match they have played since winning the first leg of this one 4-1 on 19 February. There may be a little ring-rustiness, but there should at least be no sign of fatigue. “We need to score, as well as stay focused and defend well,” said Gian Piero Gasperini. “A psychological aspect of our game that we are working on is … we seem to get comfortable and assume the job is done when it really is not. The team were great in the first leg, but I will not celebrate until the second leg is over.”
The Valencia coach, Albert Celades, insisted that “the result from the first leg isn’t a fair reflection of what happened in the game”, which is true: Maxi Gómez displayed the finishing skills of a kitten as he spurned a number of fine chances in that one. He won’t be spurning any chances tonight, though, as he’s kept out by a broken foot. Still, where there’s life there’s hope: “I don’t think we need a miracle to progress, not at all,” surmised Albert Celades. I think I speak for all who saw the first game when I say: more of the same, please.
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