The bronze figure of Vicente Navarro could not nod from side to side before the two rude mistakes of Diakhaby that ended up expelling Valencia from the Champions League. The sculpture of this faithful follower that symbolizes the power of a historical hobby was the only witness in an anomalous, strange party, mute in the stands and with only one voice in the field: that of the Atalanta. Coronavirus, isolation, closed door, everything played against the Valencian team for a comeback attempt that ended before starting . [Narration and statistics]

Some 2,000 Valencians jumped the sentence and encouraged his team where the authorities left him, in the vicinity of Mestalla. But in the guts of the field there was a soul missing that the club tried to can . The roar sounded over the public address system, but football is its people. And last night he was speechless.

Despite the tireless chants through the loudspeakers, every blow of the ball, every order and every protest rumbled remembering that a health crisis had removed key elements for the epic . And the worst part is that maybe even Valencia could not have tipped a defeated score since the damned San Siro game.

Valencianism can not find guilty of elimination outside the lawn. As in the first leg in Milan, the comeback was crushed by its own mistakes almost from the start, when Diakhaby knocked Ilicic into the first attack of Atalanta. A penalty against the third minute that the Italians did not miss. If Valencia needed a perfect match in defense to keep their options, it became clear that it is no longer in its nature too soon. And that found in the Coquelin patch a central height.

More adapted to the setback surrounding the duel, the Atalanta managed better until the weight of history to peek into the quarter among the eight best in Europe. Celades' men had a hard time finding the tickle of an opponent who has them. He had tried Rodrigo with a distant shot, but who managed to match was Gameiro at 20 minutes taking advantage of an oversight of Palomino.

They began to catch his pulse when Diakhaby cut a ball with his hand in the area and Ilicic, again from the penalty spot, again steered the way to the edge of the break.

With the elimination in the air, Celades risked. He sat down the young and unfortunate French central to look for Guedes gunpowder. Gasperini had already dispensed with midfielder De Roon, with problems in one eye, to enter Zapata . All or nothing.

In his fight not to lower his arms, Gameiro returned to hook Valencia with the second goal to Ferran center. It was the youth player who turned the scoreboard between the Italian centrals to catch a ball along Parejo. If there was no classification, unless there was victory.

But Ilicic was not willing to consent. The Slovenian set out to leave Mestalla with the ball under his arm and leaving an indelible mark. A left-footed shot was made against Cillessen to tie and a fourth goal as icing. Valencia, expelled from the Champions in a gray and silent way. With eight goals against not competing.

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  • Rodrigo Moreno
  • Europe
  • Coronavirus
  • sports
  • Valencia CF