Here we have it, the return leg vs. the very modest side of Maribor.
We need to finish the business here and anything less than 3 points is out of the question.
Hoping that we don’t complicate things and risk something, even though Maribor is weak and will not be motivated, but we can be conservative when playing away as we’ve shown this season. We need to approach this one as we were in RSP, no excuses in case of failure, all the players must be wary of this and be focused to avoid unpleasant surprises.
Only after we get the 3 points we can make calculations. For the sake of not having tough competition in the future (Quarters and further), it would be nice if Spartak beats Liverpool and eliminates them. However, even a draw between Liverpool and Spartak can see us finish first if we beat Maribor, so fingers crossed we finish first!
Perhaps some key players will be rested ahead of the RM clash on Saturday, but we really need the 3 points tonight and all the players should be contributing in the victory, including the key ones.
Fingers crossed we can take care of our business. Let’s win this to secure qualification and keep our winning momentum going. Anything else is a bonus, 1st place would be golden though.
Let’s hope we stay injury free too and avoid suspensions. We have a huge game also at Real Madrid on Saturday and we have nearly all our squad fit and 1st team fit. Vamos!
Yest, worth mentioning is that Escudero, Banega and Mercado are one yellow away from 1 match suspension. I doubt this game will be hard enough to cause any forced yellows, but they should be careful just in case, especially Banega.
I remember last year when Sevilla were knocked out of Champions, an Atletico fan wrote on twitter, ‘Sevilla compete in uefa while Atletico compete in Champions’, and a Sevilla fan replied, ‘No, Sevilla win uefa’s, Atletico don’t win champions’.
Well at least we’re still there and hopefully we can go further, and say enjoy ‘uefa’ to the atletico fans.
feeling a bit relieved now that liverpool has a 2-0 lead… winning the group looking more and more out of reach. inexcusable if we don’t come back and win, but a liverpool win/tie would make the outcome of this match cosmetic (though still potentially embarassing).
We are too far forward, too parallel, no verticality. Sarabia useless so far but that’s how he is sometimes. it will take some set piece to put us back on track, or Mudo Vasco.
Very bad 1st half! Liverpool have saved our bacon! Hope we can fight back in 2nd. However, there maybe a part of the players not wanting to risk injury or suspension. It’s not good to lose to Maribor but barring a miracle in the other game we are through regardless. I’d rather us get a result against Real Madrid on Saturday than tonight. Provided Moscow don’t pull off the mother of all miracles. We can’t win the group now but I still want us to go through on a high.
Having said that we have been poor. We need to show more and losing to Maribor is not acceptable. Hoping we play better in 2nd and least get a draw.
Maribor have got forward 3 times and created danger, rest of the half we had them pinned back and created nothing. Tactical error. Poor old Berizzo is having to watch this from home
If we’re going to play this style we need Vazquez on.
I’ve also seen Pizarro the defensive midfieder more forward than Banega and MKD for most of the first half. Sort out the tactics please.