



Let's breakdown Wednesday's matches and a couple of interesting results. In this article we'll talk about the match at one of Europe's historic sites the San Siro. It wasn't Inter, it wasn't Milan, the Italian side that ran over Valencia was Atalanta.





Atalanta 4 x 1 Valencia





While I picked the Italians to advance into the Quarterfinals even I and the most ambitious Atalanta fan didn't expect such a lobsided win. That final goal by Valencia keeps them alive and they now need a 3-0 win instead of a 5-0 victory which was the case when the match was 4-0.





The reasoning behind picking Atalanta was simple as I explained in my preview. Playing the first match at home wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Looking at the style of play from both teams even if Valencia were to come out of the first leg with a good result I didn't expect to see them scoring multiple goals and in such case the Bergamo side would travel to Spain with a good chance to advance as long as they got on the board and that was the worst case scenario for the first leg.





With a win and the ability to exploit a Valencia side that's not used to attacking early and often in a match that they need to win Atalanta would be in even better shape. With the result that they actually got I just don't see how they'll fail to go through. Their biggest obstacle is a psychological meltdown. I'd give Valencia something along the lines of 5-7.5%





Now getting back to the first leg we all must praise the job Gian Piero Gasperini has done with this unique side. The two goals by Hateboer especially the first one are very good examples of how the wingbacks play in this system. They attack the box often presenting themselves as options in behind the fullback on the far post. Unlike most teams they finish plays.





Watching Alejandro "Papu" Gomez and Joseph Ilicic playing together is one of the most pleasurable experiences in football today. Ilicic showed in his goal that you can't just do the normal thing against skilled lefties to and overcommith to his left foot as he'll hurt you.





I hope you all enjoyed it and I'll post the Tottenham x Leipzig article tomorrow.





It's very nice to see that the blog is growing and as it does I'll begin to put more and more time into providing you with the best content I possibly can. Feel free to comment, leave your thoughts and let me know what you want to see in the future. As always subscribe to the blog and you'll receive daily notifications whenever a new post comes out.