Atalanta (a) Europa League 1/4 Final 2nd leg

[Rich]

Nah....there's a certain footballing beauty in watching a team play football like that and succeed against, on paper, superior opposition.

It's testament to excellent coaching

I wouldn’t enjoy watching that every week.

[Tatterdemalion]

What I don't get is that we're a flexible team. Atalanta are clearly losing lots of games in Serie A. Did we not watch them?

[spud_gun]

I wouldn’t enjoy watching that every week.

I'd happily wager that there's not a single Atalanta fan is on est1907 complaining about their style of football this evening.

[Buzzo]

Nah....there's a certain footballing beauty in watching a team play football like that and succeed against, on paper, superior opposition.

It's testament to excellent coaching

You are a masochist. Just a load of big ****ers running. It was rubbish. Effective, but rubbish.

[spud_gun]

You are a masochist. Just a load of big ****ers running. It was rubbish. Effective, but rubbish.

I do however '****house' football

[peterbread]

Bring back Wimbledon!

[Buzzo]

I do however '****house' football

They were like a good Kilmarnock

[spud_gun]

They were like a good Kilmarnock

Now you're taking it too far

[Buzzo]

Tonight would have been an excellent away first leg result. We ****ed ourselves last week. Home legs first is not the Liverpool way.

[Kenneth]

Was a bit of a throw back to 90s Italian anti football. They were snide as ****. Leaving something in on every tackle. A team of physical specimens that look like they could run for ever. Fair play to them, but I hope they aren’t a sign of what’s to come. Macca in particular looked tiny and slow out there (second half, got some space in the first) and is not a player that would survive well if we were to play against that every week.

It was. It’s exacerbated by our shape. Always three up top, and the team was too top heavy. We needed more bodies on the middle of the pitch to ensure the back line had an outlet with the ball. Instead, the back four had one midfielder dropping back for a pass who was then marked out of the game, or they had to drop so deep to get the ball they were playing as a CB, leaving a CB as the only passing option. When they went wide to robbo and Trent there was a man sat on them so we went for long balls or passes to Ali. We managed it pretty well first half with a lot of movement and swapping of positions, but what we needed was four in the middle with Trent stepping in to make it five.

[Mr Pink]

Was always gonna be a long shot today, but I was pretty disappointed with our effort. After getting the early penalty, I was thinking that if we could keep a clean sheet we’d surely go through. Diaz was the only booking we got, which was for dissent - not that I want players to get booked, but I think the fact we had none indicates a lack of aggression or something.

They were comparing it to the Barcelona game in the buildup- I think about robbo pushing Messi in the head, in that game- there was none of that type of needle in this one. Felt very much like another day at the office.

Especially the second half was disappointing- we just seemed to accept the result. I’d have preferred to draw 1-1 on the night, after rolling the dice and over committing trying to get the next goal, but we seemed to just take the result.

[danperkins]

There was definitely a concession and we just seemed to go through the motions in the 2nd half. I've never seen us do that, it was such a let down.

[Exiled_red]

Only one English club into a euro semi-final. Best league in the world…

Maybe, just maybe the powers at be might look at the number of games the players play and try and do something about it… doubt it.

Not happening

[Rafa Justice]

There was definitely a concession and we just seemed to go through the motions in the 2nd half. I've never seen us do that, it was such a let down.

Atalanta were all over us all over the pitch. Was a great performance by them regardless.

[spud_gun]

Not happening

Deffo not, with the Champions League and international calendar expansions players at the very top level will be playing even more football.