Atalanta Vs Valencia: Ahead of the exciting encounter between the underdogs of the tournament, we name 3 players who can the game.
Atalanta will take on Valencia in the Champions League round of tie at the San Siro, which is designated to host every match of Atalanta in the Champions League.
The Italian club has been impressive in their current campaign and has maintained the quality of their performances since last season. Hence, predicting for yet another thrilling performance by them.
On the other hand, Valencia has also been brilliant, defeating Barcelona and drawing against Real Madrid in the league. Though they had tough group ties, yet they managed to top the group with better goal-difference.
In this tie, nobody can determine the favourites to qualify, but the quality of both squads is really high, and certain individuals have shown some excellent performances throughout the season.
So, the Sportsrush will name three players from the tie, who can change the game on their own, as Valencia travels to San Siro to play the 1st leg tonight.
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1. Josip Ilicic
Josip Ilicic is in a splendid form, the Slovenian International has amassed 15 goals and 6 assists across all the competitions this season, and with nine of them coming in the last eight league outings.
But he is yet to score a goal in the Champions League this season even though he has given 5 appearances in the tournament so far. Thus, this is the right time for him to open the scoring in the competition.
He plays in a two-striker setup at Atalanta, paired with either Duvan Zapata or Luis Muriel. So, we expect a great performance by the 32-year-old forward tonight.
2. Dani Parejo
The veteran midfielder has been sensational this with his performances while amassing 8 goals and 5 assists in 32 appearances across all competitions, giving Valencia a great campaign so far.
He would be a huge influence in the midfield and his aesthetic dribbling skills will surely pose a problem to the Italian outfit tonight. Moreover, he has been brilliant in the Champions League outings too, as he bagged 1 goal and 2 assist in the 6 group stage games.
Thus, we bank on him to have a great performance tonight for the Spanish giants, as they strive for the European success tonight, and gdo have a chance to be in the quarter-final round.P
3. Duvan Zapata
Duvan Zapata hardly played the Champions League this season, as he was ruled out with an injury for a long period of time this season, but he is now back, and running things on the storm.
In just 16 appearances across all competitions this season, he managed to bag 9 goals and 6 assists and is probable to start tonight ahead of Luis Muriel, who probably will come of the bench to add firepower against Valencia.
He is very creative and has a great ability to score, his partnership with Ilicic was very successful this season until he picked an injury which kept him out for 3 months.
But now, he is back and Valencia will have to be even more cautious. He may have missed 4 games in the Champions League this season, but in the 2 games he played, he still managed to score a goal, and he might once again give a significant contribution tonight.
