EL: Everton-Atalanta 1-5 |as it happened...
MATCH PREVIEW:
- The Toffees have won just one of their seven meetings with Italian opponents in European competition (D2 L4), beating Fiorentina 2-0 in the 2nd leg of their UEFA Cup last 16 tie before losing out on penalties.
- Atalanta’s 3-0 win in the reverse fixture was La Dea’s first ever meeting with English opposition in European competition.
- Everton lost their previous home match in this competition against Lyon – only once have they ever lost consecutive home matches in major European competition (vs Benfica and BATE Borisov in the 2009-10 Europa League).
- Atalanta have only won one of their 12 away European games in their history (D5 L6), winning 1-0 at Fenerbahce in the 1990-91 UEFA Cup.
- Everton are already out of the competition having picked up just one point from their opening four group games. Only one English club has picked up as few as one point from their opening five group games in either the Champions League or Europa League – Blackburn in 1995-96.
- A win would secure Atalanta’s place in the knockout round – they’re without defeat so far (W2 D2) and have scored the most goals in Group E (8).
- The Toffees have conceded 10 goals in their four Europa League games this season – only Vardar (17) and Austria Vienna (11) have shipped more so far.
- Josip Ilicic has had a hand in each of Atalanta’s last four Europa League goals (2 goals, 2 assists).
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