GIROUD BICYCLE KICK WINS FOR CHELSEA
After his great overhead kick found the net to break the deadlock in a difficult match, all Olivier Giroud could do was wait.
And wait and wait. Giroud’s 68th-minute bicycle-kick goal against Atletico Madrid was initially disallowed for offside and it took nearly three minutes for video review to reverse the call and secure Chelsea the 1-0 away win in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday.
Giroud was clearly in front of the defenders when he pulled off his acrobatic shot and few Chelsea players complained when the linesman raised his flag, but VAR determined that the ball came from Atletico defender Mario Hermoso instead of Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount, thus annulling the offside.
“I did not know what to think about the goal, I just focused on hitting the overhead kick and was pleased to see it go in the back of the net, I had no clue about being offside,” Giroud said. “Mason Mount said he did not touch the ball. Good for the team, good for me.”
The result kept Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel unbeaten in eight matches since he took over the squad to replace Frank Lampard.
“Fantastic result, fantastic goal. Well deserved,” Tuchel said. “It was a very disciplined performance — a deserved shutout.”
Atletico was the home team but the match was played in Bucharest, Romania, because of travel restrictions preventing visitors from Britain entering Spain.
The second leg will be on March 17 in London.
It had been a lackluster match until Giroud’s goal, with neither team managing to create many significant scoring opportunities and with the goalkeepers not having to work too hard.
“It’s been a difficult week but we have to keep competing,” Atletico midfielder Koke Resurreccion said. “We have to raise our heads and try to win the second leg. There’s no other option for us.”
In the other round-of-16 match on Tuesday, Bayern Munich defeated Lazio 4-1 in Italy.
It was the second consecutive loss for Atletico after a seven-match unbeaten streak in all competitions. It was also the eighth straight game in which the Spanish club has conceded a goal, extending its worst run without a clean sheet since coach Diego Simeone arrived in late 2011.
Notable
Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Efrain Alvarez is on the 48-man preliminary roster for both the United States and Mexico for the Olympic men’s soccer qualifying tournament in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Now 18, Alvarez played for the U.S. at an under-15 tournament in 2016, then switched to Mexico and played for El Tri at the 2019 Under-17 World Cup. He attended U.S. national team training in December but did not appear in the exhibition against El Salvador in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The U.S. roster also included included Red Bull Salzburg midfielder Brenden Aaronson, Barcelona forward Konrad De La Fuente, PSV Eindhoven defender Chris Gloster and Norwich forward Sebastian Soto.
• The annual Under-19 European Championships in men’s and women’s soccer were canceled Tuesday for the second straight year.