Europa League: The Atlético Madrid humiliated before its trip to Brittany
Playing in their respective domestic league, Rennes’ opponents in the Europa League have had mixed fortunes this week-end.
Visiting the Route de Lorient this Thursday evening, the Atlético Madrid has sunk this Saturday at the Camp Nou. Against a FC Barcelona untouchable in its stadium since the beginning of the Liga season, the Colchoneros didn’t stand a chance, despite their two 4-0 victories in the two previous game weeks.
Put under the sword by Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas or David Villa, the Madrid defence gave in five times, with the double Ballon d’Or winner scoring a half-trick. Before that, he had provoked an own-goal by Miranda after Villa opened the scored. A heavy defeat (0-5), for a team that didn’t show much in attack either.
With a tricky game against the FC Sevilla looming next week-end, could the Atlético Madrid manager be tempted to rotate his squad against Rennes?
- The team against FC Barcelone : Courtois - Perea, Miranda, Godin, Lopez - Suarez (Salvio, 46’), Gabi, Tiago (Adrian, 81’) - Reyes (Turan, 46’), Falcao, Diego.
Hosting Inverness, the Celtic Glasgow had a much easier game to play on Saturday. Without its defender Kevin Wilson (injured to the Achilles in a League cup game on Wednesday, and unavailable for ten weeks), the Celtic easily made the difference in the first half, with goals scored by Joe Ledley et James Forrest.
With the Rangers scoring another large victory in the same time, this victory doesn’t change much to the standings situation, with the Bhoys remaining at reasonable distance from their eternal rivals.
- The team against Inverness : Forster - Matthews, Majstorovic, Loovens, El Kaddouri - Forrest, Ki (Samaras, 75’), Kayal, Ledley - Stokes (McCourt, 75’), Hooper (Bangura, 52’).
Finally, slight disappointment for the Udinese who, after managing a good draw against AC Milan, couldn’t do better than another draw, this time in Cagliari. “There was a lack of precision today, Udinese manager Francesco Guidolin admitted after the game, but this was our fifth game in two weeks. We can’t be great all the time. It isn’t easy to maintain such a high level of performance”.
Muted in attack, the Udinese managed not to concede however, and left Sardinia with a point. Despite this average result, the club from Udine remains second in the league standing, with the same number of points as the leader, the Juventus.
- The team against Cagliari : Handanovic - Benatia, Danilo, Domizzi (Ekstrand, 86’) - Isla, Agyemang-Badu, Pinzi, Asamoah, Armero - Torje (Fabbrini, 63’), Di Natale.