Valencia will sense a similarly glorious opportunity though. The Spanish side sit seventh in La Liga and they’ll be looking to capitalise on their excellent work to top a demanding group featuring Chelsea and Ajax. They too will be taking in the excitement of the unknown: the away side last made it to this stage in the 2012/13 season and it’s been 13 years since they managed to make it beyond this point in the competition.
Hello and welcome to live commentary of this Champions League last-16 first leg between Atalanta and Valencia. For Atalanta, this could well be one of the biggest games in the club’s history: this is their debut season in the Champions League and a tie against Valencia represents a unique opportunity for the team from Bergamo to gate-crash the last eight.