Champions League: Red Bull Beats Tottenham, Atalanta Rips Valencia

Tottenham Hotspur lost at home to Red Bull Leipzig 0-1, while Atalanta destroyed Valencia, 4-1, in Wednesday’s Champions League matches.

Lloris Saves Spurs From a Disaster

If it weren’t for the fantastic French goalkeeper, Tottenham would no doubt be destroyed in front of their own fans. On several occasions, Lloris’ reactions prevented RB’s attackers from scoring and saved some chances for Tottenham’s advance to the next stage.

The only scorer for the guests from Leipzig was Timo Werner who converted a penalty in the 56th minute. It was Ben Davies who bought down in the box one of the rivals, causing for the official to point towards the penalty spot without any hesitation.

Up until that point, the Germans were better, had more chances and Julian Nagelsmann’s side imposed its own tempo and style of play. The Spurs weren’t able to get out from their box throughout the majority of the first 45 minutes.

https://twitter.com/allgoalline/status/1230240323613396992

After the conceded goal, the picture on the pitch changed, and Tottenham was the one who controlled the flow, making an incredible pressure on the back line of Leipzig’s team.

“I want to stay positive, especially after the last 20 minutes. Obviously, if we started the game in the same way, the score would be different. But there is a second leg, we still have a chance. We are still alive,” said Lloris to the journalists right after the match.

This was a historic day for RB who posted its first win in the knockout stage of the Champions League. In two weeks time, they will have a chance to clinch the advance to the top 8 clubs in Europe and improve their personal best.

Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, didn’t have anything to say to his players, because of the current situation in the team. One by one, many of the players picked up injuries and the Spurs are simply overwhelmed with bad luck this season.

Atalanta’s Glorious Night

No one, including the author of this article, believed that Atalanta might destroy Valencia the way they did it tonight. La Dea packed four goals into the rival’s net, stunning the world and indicating that they might be much more serious than anyone anticipated.

“If we want to get into the Champions League quarter-finals, we have to play like this at the Mestalla too, prove we deserve to be there with a show of strength and win there too,” stated Gian Piero Gasperini, hosts coach.

That is a ROCKET from Josip Iličić 😲

In the first ever Champions League knockout match in their history, Atalanta are off to a flying start 👌 pic.twitter.com/d2jWEZq64J

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 19, 2020

Atalanta’s tactics include constant attacks, regardless of the result. They are the top offence in Serie A, the one which struck five times against Milan and Parma and seven times versus Torino on the road. Now, one of the best Spanish teams experienced what is like being dragged into La Dea’s machinery.

Hatebouer scored two goals, in 16th and 62nd minute, Josip Ilicic in 42nd and Remo Freuler in 57th, On the other side, Denis Cheryshev left some hope for the Bats, with his hit in the 66th minute.

This is all from the Champions League for this week, and the competition continues in six days. Previously, Atletico Madrid defeated Liverpool 1-0 at Wanda Metropolitan, and Borussia Dortmund edged out Paris Saint-Germain, 2-1 in Germany.

Other four pairs are Real Madrid vs. Man City, Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich, Lyon vs. Juventus and Napoli vs. Barcelona.