Team news | Ange’s latest on Maddison and Solanke

Ange Postecoglou reported that both James Maddison and Dominic Solanke were taken off as a precaution after both ‘felt something niggly’ in the second half of our 3-1 win against Bodo/Glimt in the first leg of our UEFA Europa League semi-final on Thursday night.

Madders was outstanding, pulling the strings from his ‘10’ role and scoring our second goal of the night, pulling down Pedro Porro’s pass from deep before finding the bottom corner. That built on our early breakthrough with Brennan Johnson netting inside a minute and Dominic made it 3-0 from the penalty spot on the hour.

It wasn’t too long after the third goal that Madders went down requiring treatment, and he was quickly replaced by Dejan Kulusevski. Dominic was next to depart, feeling his quad, on 75 minutes, replaced by Wilson Odobert.

Speaking on our Review Show, Ange was asked about Madders and Dom. “Both of them felt something niggly,” he said. “It just made sense to take them both off and protect them a little.”

Ange also told us that Richarlison’s substitution for Mathys Tel at half-time was tactical. “I knew he wouldn’t last the 90 minutes in that position because there are more demands on you, so I made the change at half-time, but I thought he was really good in the first half.”

Asked about all three players in his post-match press conference, Ange responded: “Richarlison wasn't injured, it was just a tactical thing. He did a great job for us in the first half, exactly what we needed him to do, but we thought the game would open up in the second half and we got Mathys on for that. Dom and Madders… Madders felt a tweak in his knee, but it doesn't sound like it's anything serious, and Dom something similar in his quad, but both of them didn't feel it was anything too significant, but thought it was wise just to take them off at that point.”