Europa League – Atletico Madrid-Copenhagen

Atletico Madrid hosts Copenhagen in a second 1/16-final leg from the UEFA Europa League. The first game in the Danish capital ended with a 4-1 win for the Spanish team, which gives them an incredible advantage before the rematch.

The first game in Copenhagen started with a goal for the home team, when Viktor Fischer found the net after just 15 minutes of play. The night started well for the Scandinavians, but didn’t end well. Goals by Saul, Kevin Gameiro, Antoine Griezmann and Vitolo basically sent Atletico to the 1/8-finals.

It’s clear that Copenhagen can’t possibly score four goals in Madrid in order to go through. What they can do is play in the best way they can and leave the competition with their heads high.

As for Atletico, it’d be curious to see if the manager Diego Simeone will make any rotations in his starting line-up. The result from the first leg is giving him this option.

One thing is for sure – Atletico Madrid would want to reach the final of the Europa League. The team dissapointed its fans by leaving the Champions League pretty soon, being unable to reach the 1/8-finals. Now they would want to win Europa League and finish their season on a high note. They have some theoretical chance to beat Barcelona for La Liga, but in reality Europa League is their only chance of winning a trophy until the end of the season.

In the Spanish La Liga Atletico Madrid are trailing on 7 points behind the leader Barcelona, so they are certainly not favourites for winning the title.

Meanwhile Copenhagen are having a terrible season in the Danish Superliga, currently being on 21 points behind the leader Midtjylland. They are usually dominating the league, but now things are really different for them.