Despite being in a lower league position than their opponent, Atletico Madrid, managed to show their superiority against Valencia in the Semifinal of Europa League as Diego Simeone’s side eliminated Unay Emery’s boys with two victories.
Having already taking a 4-2 lead in the first leg, Atletico picked up another victory at Mestalla thanks to a lovely striker from their young striker, Adrian Lopez, which simply ended the home team’s effort.
Coming into the game with a pretty good advantage, Atletico doest look to play an offensive game as they’re much more concern about not letting Valencia picking up an early goal which could boost the home side’s confidence. Simeone’s tactic worked out pretty well as the game was rather scrappy in the first 10-15 minutes, but El Che did eventually dominate things after around 20 minutes of play as Sergio Canales and Sofiane Fenghouli were starting to get into the match and dictated their team’s attacking play.
However, things went bad for Valencia in the second half as they lost Canales just few minutes after the re-start due to injury, which didn’t look got at all. Without the young playmaker’s presence on the pitch, El Che started to lose a bit control in the final third, since Emery opted to play a winger instead of another attacking midfielder.
Valencia’s dip was being used very well by Atletico as they eventually grabbed a goal through Adrian’s ferocious shot which left goal keeper, Diego Alves, stunned without being able to do much about it. This goal simply take the sting of the home team’s effort as their performance decreased even more in the remaining minutes but things got a little bit heated in the final 10 when Simeone’s side were reduced to 10 men after Thiago received his marching order.
Still, it was simply too late for Valencia to do anything about the game as mentally they look resigned already with the result, much for the disappointment of their fans at Mestalla. As for Atletico, this result opens their chance to end their season with some silverware, something that’s pretty positive for Simoene’s first season.
