What a fucking disaster. Ironically, I thought we looked better 11 vs 11 in the first ten minutes than we did with the man advantage. 1-1 would have been a terrible result for us had Atletico played full strength; a man down, it was catastrophic. Don't ask me what Kos was thinking when he tried to hook the ball back up field rather than simply clearing it. Griezmann's chance here, made easier by Mustafi's going to ground, wasn't their only one in the game either. We tested Oblak but outside of a late fingertip save off a Ramsey header he didn't have to do anything particularly special.
We played well, I thought. The sad truth is that Atletico is the better team, especially their defense. They spotted us a man for 85 minutes (yes, those were both deserved yellows) and still drew. We can definitely win the game next week, but we'll need something more than we got this game. Will Mikhi be back? I thought everyone had a pretty good game, though both our CBs looked shaky at times. No blame can be attached to Ospina, who saved every shot he could and whose distribution was really good. I am going to complain about Xhaka repeatedly shooting from 35 yards, though. He was nowhere near the goal, and Oblak is not going to be beaten from distance.
No neutral is going to give us much chance to progress after this. I can't blame them. This leg was almost Spursian in its futility. But there's another leg next week.
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