In one of the biggest early tests of their season to date Chelsea FC displayed monumental character to come from behind and beat a combative Atletico Madrid away at the Wanda Metropolitano. Antonio Conte will be hoping his men build on this moving forward.
The score linein the match was deceptively close for a match that Chelsea dominated for long stretches. The first half was entirely dominated by Chelsea in a remarkable sense. Steven Gerard who was commentating on the match for BT even suggested that Chelsea were a more capable attacking side against Atletico than Real Madrid or Barcelona. High praise.
That said Chelsea couldn’t crack the resilience of Simeone’s well coached and remarkably athletic squad. Diego Godin will at some point be forced into explaining where the fountain of youth lies but until then he’ll just sit as the lynchpin of this remarkable Atletico Madrid team.
Atletico got the first goal finally through a David Luiz-being-David-Luiz moment. He simply rather than marking his man chose to hold onto his shirt in plain sight of the referee in the box when defending a corner. Though he didn’t pull too hard or with intent to hurt or foul Atletico’s player would’ve been foolish not to make a meal out of it. He did make a meal out of it, the referee served it and Antoine Griezmann finished it with power and precision. Straight down the middle. 1-0 Atletico.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ferpk3oouKo
Despite the fact that Chelsea were far and away the better side they were down to Atletico Madrid at this point.
Chelsea took to the pitch in the second half with a fire in their belly. Having dominated the entire first half in a way that no side has done to Atletico at this point in the season they had an absolute right to feel hard done by. Eventually Chelsea’s talismanic winger Eden Hazard delivered a cross for the growing legend of Alvaro Morata to head home which he did with the precision of a trained and professional poacher.
With new hope Chelsea continued to press time and again. Cesc Fabregas missed what was essentially the dictionary definition of a sitter before playing some of the worst midfield I’ve seen since taking my nephew to he Heath three months ago for a kick about.
As the game wound down into what looked like a fair draw Chelsea continued to fight for the match. Coming time and time again at Atletico who much to their own credit defended with aplomb. Their are few defenses this side of Turin who defend with such quality.
Eventually though and with the last kick of the game Chelsea’s hero of last season Michy Batshuayi scored the winning goal. 2-1 in this manner is a wildly satisfying result for Chelsea who take the confidence and momentum this victory will have given them into their biggest match of the season so far against Manchester City. Atletico can feel hard done by but this match will have done wonders for Chelsea that go far beneath the surface.