State of grace The Champions League does not look at pedigree or medal winners, it only rewards those who honor football, pray more daring, pray more content, but always effective. The Atalanta has sneaked into the greats of Europe with those clear rules. The Gasperini team does not give up making history and endorsed a defeat against Valencia, which today is its antithesis. Because you can't always survive by force of arrests and self-esteem . [Narration and statistics 4-1]
The Atalanta storm soon began to blow and Valencia did not know how to contain it. In tromba, as if he would hear the touch of outburst, he launched himself in search of Domenech's goal. The Gasperini team plays prose: direct, suffocating in pressure and very accurate. All without giving up the ball, which always goes through the rhythm of Papu Gómez, the player who carries the bugle.
From the first mistake of the Valencian defenseman, he could not take advantage because Pasilic's shot on goal came across the hand of the Valencian goal . In the second there was no mercy. Hateboer took advantage of Gayà's dismissal to hunt the center of the Argentine captain who took a walk through the area and began to pick the tie when he had just begun.
The Italians started their offensive machine leaving Valencia breathless, which took many, many, minutes to overcome. He did not find the balance between wrapping the Mangala-Diakhaby couple and simultaneously tickling an opponent who is lethal in attack but not infallible . And if there was a clear order, it was to try to leave San Siro alive.
Ferran and Guedes were the soloists entrusted with the task. Talent and speed to counteract offensive exuberance. However, both were turned in each crash. The defensive aids prepared by Gasperini worked and, while his defense was wrapped, that of Valencia showed a hole on the right that left Hateboer and Ilicic again and again with advantage over Gayà.
Celades' men, more experts in European duels, lacked a fang , fearful perhaps of seeing the rival deployment towards their Achilles heel. Kondogbia and Parejo multiplied to cover waterways, forgetting that every ball that ends at Papu Gómez's feet was closer to Jaume Domenech.
The message from the bench was to defeat fear and insist. In the 30th minute Ferran Torres crashed a ball in the crosshead that made them wake up and believe. Then he tried Guedes with a center-kick that almost pushed Mangala to the Gollini meshes. The illusion that the duel could be equalized, that the exchange of blows could also bruise the Italians, first appeared ... and it hardly lasted.
Gasperini had sought the mobility of Pasalic and Ilicic in the area. It was the way to convert every doubt of the Valencians into a little step towards the quarterfinals. The stride reached the edge of the break when the German found only the powerful Slovenian in the right corner of the area to beat Jaume with a powerful shot.
How to stop Atalanta? The answer was not found by the boys of Celades while those of Bergamo continued to search tirelessly for the goal. It is their nature and they are not willing to give it up. Every time Valencia grew up, that it found Ferran or a liberated Soler, a slap arrived . Freuler gave the first, Maxi answered from the small area to Gollini's body and finished Hateboer fattening a marker that Cheryshev made up.
The tie arrives very unbalanced to Mestalla, as an uphill that this depleted Valencia contemplates as an Everest. And meanwhile, Gasperini plays the rooms giving up a central to put more gunpowder in attack. Maybe football is for the brave.
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