How the fuck are we not there tonight!
Come on Xabi!
We were ambushed. They did to us what we used to do to teams, pressed the life out of us from the whistle with a very athletic display. Endo and the back up full backs Tsimikas and Gomez were exploited and we never recovered. Dom fiddling about deep in midfield to then present them with a third killed the tie.
It wasn't an aberration or a bad day at the office, as these slow starts have been there all season. Atalanta and Gasperini will have seen the body of evidence. Just think we underestimated them and they were right at it.
Just had a look at their fixtures and they didn't play the preceding weekend, we had that gruelling 2-2 at OT. We don't have the most energetic midfield and the lesser recovery time will only have compounded that. With the gulf in running power between the sides they really did look as many suggested/joked to be on something. Harvey did have that great effort and Darwin missed a good chance, but then again they should have been ahead in the opening minutes when Kelleher somehow saved from point blank range with his head.
It's a massive pity as Dublin would have been some send off, but the team was comprehensively beaten so we can have no complaints.
