GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS, EUROPA FÚTBOL

EUROPA DA DAH DA DAHHHHH! (Or something like that)

What a night in Europe’s third-best competition (Champions League > Eurovision > Europa League).

So many bad things happened to teams we are in direct rivalry with. Let’s go through them.

ASTON VILLA BOTCHED THE MISSION

I was double-screening so don’t have a serious tactical analysis of the game (like I ever do), but the game was going the way of Unai Emery. Martinez had to make 3-4 one-on-one saves in the first half. Villa took a 2-0 lead, and Lille had a marginal call flagged offside by VAR. It was looking like the game was done… then it wasn’t. Lille pulled a goal back late on and narrowed the Villa lead to a much easier target.

Lille is 4th in Ligue 1. They beat Marseille at the weekend, and they boast a 71% win ratio at home this season.

What does that mean for Arsenal? Well, Unai Emery has a big conundrum on his hands.

• Lille has no game this weekend. That’s time to rest, recuperate, and tactically prepare for the home leg

• Unai Emery has a very weak bench to choose from if his key players get injured.

• Italy is all but assured of an extra Champions League spot for the 2024/25 season with a coefficient ranking of 18.428. As for 2nd place, Germany (16.785) moved past England (16.750). Unai cannot rely on other teams pushing the coefficient to the level he needs to get the 5th Champions League spot. He has to rely on Villa to rack up the points.

I read some people in the LG comments saying that Unai will want to smash Arsenal. I’m not so sure. We mean nothing to him – just a blip in his storied career. The most important thing for him right now is crushing Lille away from home. Arsenal doesn’t matter; Champions League does. He has more chance of Champions League qualification if Villa represents England and wins their next game.

What pleased me most is this comment from BBC ex-Aston Villa striker Garry Thompson:

“They say your big players step forward at the right times on the big occasions. This isn’t the big occasion, this is just the quarter-final, but we needed Emi Martinez to step up tonight and he did. He doesn’t have an awful lot to do some games because Villa keep hold of possession really well but there were three or four times today he made some really good saves, some good blocks, made himself big. He has kept us in the game. If Lille had got the goals they could have done then it could have been 5-1 to Lille.”

Arsenal has two extra days to prepare. I think they’ll open Villa up if they play like they did last night.

LIVERPOOL ASSUME A SMASHING AND GET SMASHED

Atalanta were supposed to get mauled by Liverpool at Anfield. Klopp left the big boys on the bench. It was all a bit arrogant. Atalanta DESTROYED THEM. Premier League flop Scamacca got on the scoresheet TWICE.

Klopp might have played his last European game at Anfield and his team flunked out badly, losing 3-0. It was really poor. He had to bring on three of his big stars at halftime and it made no difference. Atalanta could have scored 3 more.

The best fans in the world exited at halftime! It was very surprising.

The issue? Losing 0-3 is so bad, you’d imagine Klopp will give up and go for broke in the Premier League. Or, because it’s a trophy he’s never won, does he channel the vibes of the past and try to recreate the win after they lost the first leg at Barca 3-0 (away game totally different).

Whatever he does, you can’t tell me losing like that is good for morale heading into the final stretch. Fulham away next week is going to be VERY heavy-legged.

Right, short post. Let me know what YOU think in the comments. Also, get the latest Thursday Therapy session below.