VA VA VOOM
Giroud unlocks Atletico with overhead gem
The ball found the net at 67 minutes and 56 seconds. At 70 minutes and 45 seconds, Chelsea were allowed to celebrate. They had scored an away goal: in a neutral stadium.
That is modern football for you, but nobody on the flight back to London from Bucharest would have been complaining. Justice was done. The better, the more ambitious team, were victorious.
Dour, dogged Atletico Madrid lost. Now Chelsea have a vital advantage going into the second leg. They will need it, too. Mason Mount and Jorginho will be missing, suspended, and Atletico are dangerous when wounded.
Yet this was a huge win, for Chelsea and manager Thomas Tuchel. For match-winner Olivier Giroud, too. he was Tuchel’s first-choice as striker but hasn’t kept the position. he might, after this. his hold-up play was excellent and his goal was a beauty. The sort of goal that very much deserved to win a nip and tuck encounter like this. It was a moment of sheer class in what was otherwise a cussed, niggly affair.
So why the confusion. It was a cross from Marcos Alonso that caused Madrid to crack. Mount was in there, hassling, and it unsettled defender Mario hermoso. The ball spun off to Giroud, who buried it with a beautiful overhead kick.
Alas, a linesman’s flag was up. Chelsea despaired. But VAR makes checks without bidding these days. So referee Felix Brych paused the restart while his colleague Marco Fritz had a look. And another look. Close to three minutes passed.
Various players, mostly in stripes, tried to apply some local pressure. Brych merely stepped out of earshot. eventually, news came. hermoso’s intervention had been judged a deliberate attempt to play the ball — which it was. he had therefore played Giroud onside. The goal was awarded.
Chelsea celebrated as a team, and VAR be damned. They celebrated as if the goal had been scored three seconds, not three minutes, ago. And Atletico? They reverted rather swiftly to tetchy type. Well, one of them did.
What would cause Antonio Rudiger to react so furiously to a clash with Luis Suarez? Ah, it was that sneaky pinch on his inner thigh, caught on camera in the replays. Suarez was later booked for a foul on Andreas Christensen. he will not be banned from the second leg, though. Atletico’s threat remains.
Still, after a very shaky start, this was a strong performance from Chelsea. They saw a lot of the ball and could have grown frustrated with Madrid’s massed ranks, but they held firm to beat a team that has dominated La Liga this season. Sure, there is much work to do. But they have shown Atletico can be beaten, even at their own game.
It was tight. It always is when Atletico are playing whether in Madrid, Bucharest, or anywhere. That is their style. A low block, 11 behind the ball, crowd and defend the middle, smother the creators, pick a player who is weak in possession and swarm around him. They are masters at it, as Liverpool will testify.
The game started badly for Chelsea with a first-minute booking for Mount. Joao Felix took a tumble and referee Brych thought it was more Mount’s work than that of Cesar Azpilicueta. Neither looked worthy of a caution but Brych awarded one anyway, meaning Mount misses the return leg.
One of Madrid’s strengths is the ability to conjure opportunity from little more than hard graft and in the 14th minute Chelsea almost fell foul of that.
Suarez somehow managed to muscle Rudiger and Alonso off the ball simultaneously, turning and cutting towards goal from the right. his low cross found Thomas Lemar at the far post but the Frenchman could not turn it into the unguarded goal.
Yet Chelsea slowly grew in confidence and by half-time had created the better chances. In the 15th minute, Mount got in behind Atletico and hit a fine, low cross that Timo Werner narrowly failed to meet at the near post. An Alonso shot resulted in an easy save for goalkeeper Jan Oblak ten minutes later before Mount’s invention tested the Spaniards again.
By far Chelsea’s most inventive player, he nutmegged Marcos Llorente to set up Werner who took the wrong option, shooting from a tight angle when Giroud was better positioned in the middle. Again, Oblak was its equal.
Four minutes before the break, an Alonso cross picked out Mount in the middle. A volleyed shot was on but he chose to attempt a chip to Giroud at the far post, overcooked it and saw the ball float harmlessly into touch.
The statistics suggested Chelsea dominated this contest but it never feels like that against a Diego Simeone side. It just feels like a lot of hard work. And it is far from over.
ATLETICO MADRID (3-4-2-1): Oblak 6; Savic 6, Felipe 6, Hermoso 6 (Vitolo 84); Llorente 6, Koke 6, S Niguez 6 (Torreira 82), Lemar 6; Correa 6 (Dembele 82), Felix 6 (Lodi 82); Suarez 6. Subs not used: Grbic, San Roman, Camello, Kondogbia, Garcia, Sanchez. Booked: Llorente, Simeone, Lemar. CHELSEA (3-4-2-1): Mendy 6; Azpilicueta 7, Christensen 7, Rudiger 7; Hudson-Odoi 7 (James 80), Jorginho 7, Kovacic 7 (Kante 74), Alonso 6; Mount 6 (Ziyech 74), Werner 6 (Pulisic 87); Giroud 8 (Havertz 87). Subs not used: Caballero, Kepa, Zouma, Emerson, Chilwell, Abraham, Gilmour. Booked: Mount, Jorginho. Man of the match: Olivier Giroud. Referee: Felix Brych (Ger).