Chelsea won the first-leg 0-1 in Madrid, giving them an added advantage over the current La Liga table leaders. An away goal is an advantage, and the spectacular nature of the strike from Olivier Giroud could make Atletico side to think they’ve disqualified.
What should worry them more, however, is the defensive pattern Chelsea played with, because it’s hard enough to buzz out a team as talented as Atletico. It certainly worked out in the first leg, where they held Atletico to have a total six shots and non was on target.
Edouard Mendy didn’t even have to make a save. Maybe he played the role of been a decoration on the goal post.
Now this is just a part of the game that analyzed the bad performance from Atletico side, it may not happen again tho. After all, Chelsea haven’t proofed their self to be good on the defensive line, but Atletico bad or incompetence led to Chelsea’s clean sheets and win in the match.
There’s no doubt that Atletico playing poorly helped Chelsea keep a clean sheet but the truth is, under their new manager, Thomas Tuchel, the Blues are fast becoming a phenomenal defensive team and truly they are.
Since Tuchel took over Chelsea managerial role in late January, Chelsea have not lost not a single match ever since. They’ve won eight and drawn four of their 12 games played ever since. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, the Blues have conceded only two goals since the new coach started his career at the old Trafford bridge.
That means they’ve kept 10 clean sheets. Two of the clean were with Kepa.
Chelsea side shut down opponents for fun, and while they don’t carry with them the manic energy that Diego Simeone’s sides do, they are more capable of having the same suffocating and stifling impact on games.
It’s not fun to play against Chelsea this time around as they have been doing pretty well with their wonderful football, Tuchel if not have done any other thing, as made this great achievement.
Since the Germany born coach took over, Chelsea have faced exactly 66 shots across 10 games in the Premier League, which is the lowest in time. Their two goals conceded is also the best a team would do in the premier League while the next to them conceded seven goals.
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For comparison’s sake, although they are playing different competitions, in La Liga across the same time period Atletico have played nine games and conceded about 89 shots (the sixth-most in the league) got 10 goals (seventh) and thereby kept two clean sheets.
Chelsea’s backline with combination of Antonio Rudiger, Cesar Azpilicueta and then usually Andreas Christensen or Thiago Silva, Chelsea line up at the back are full of athleticism, determination and positional discipline. Even N’Golo Kanté (71 tackles and 54 interceptions so far this season) as well as two hard-working wing-backs, and it’s easy to see why Chelsea are so strong in defence.
This mean, what happened in the first leg possibly wasn’t a mistake. Chelsea are a monstrous defensive team and Atlético Madrid are basically not. Their massive lead at the La Liga’s table, owes much to their wins earlier this season while Barcelona and Real Madrid were spluttering and struggling as opposed to their former performance.
Luis Suárez gave Atletico a killer instinct to allow them to beat stubborn sides that look to frustrate them, but Suárez’s record in away games in the Champions League is notoriously terrible, and he is starting to show his age now (after his desire to prove how good he still was carried him through half a campaign). Now again, Suárez is very good, so there’s always a chance he could hulk out at the Bridge, but the fact remains he hasn’t scored in an away game in the Champions League since September 2015.
Joao Felix is also very talented and Kieran Trippier is back now to make alot changea using his creativity to the Atletico side, it’s possibly well not to quickly rule them out entirely, well comparing this stats with Chelsea amazingly defensive records of two goals conceded in 12 games across all competitions. 10 clean sheets. Just 66 shots faced in 10 Premier League games.
Going into this Champions League second leg, one thing is vividly clear: there is one defensive powerhouse playing in the match, well it obvious that it’s the Chelsea’s side.
it’s tactically hard to see how Atletico would turn this game around and, win and qualify for the next round.
It’s also hard to see how the teams in the champions League would break down Chelsea’s squad for the rest of the Champions League this season.
