Champions League Update: Atlético Madrid Shuts Chelsea to Reach Final
The dream to reach final for Chelsea was shut-down by the Spanish visitors Atlético Madrid as they toppled the local favorite by 3-1. Atlético Madrid will now face Real Madrid in Lisbon on May 24.
The defensive tactics of Jose Mourinho came up well in earlier matches despite several criticisms. But this time, the entire defence crumbled in front of the superlative performance of Atlético Madrid.
Chelsea made a good start at the beginning, but as the match progresseD, Atlético Madrid took hold of the situation and returned splendidly with brilliant attacks.
Chelsea took the first lead in 36 minutes when Fernando Torres got a golden opportunity to rest the ball in the net.
Atlético Madrid did not take much time to equalise at 44 minutes when Tiago crossed the ball from the left flank, reaching Juanfran who tackled the ball to go outside the line at the back post and passed it to Adrián to do what was needed.
The worst event that literally took the match away from Chelsea's hand was in the second half when the Cameroon man Eto'o tried to tackle Diego Costa inside the box, leading to a penalty. Costa placed a fine shot to beat the Australian goalkeeper, putting the team in the lead by 2-1.
Chelsea has got some good chance in the middle for an equaliser, but could not turn it into a goal.
The last goal came at 72 minutes when Arda Turan placed the third goal to seal the fate of Chelsea in Champions League.
Chelsea was in a defensive mode, which proved worthy at the initial stage. But the penalty for a wrong tactic proved dearly to the home team. The visitor took the right opportunity to side-line Chelsea from the league. The goals scored by Atlético Madrid were definitely stoppable, but somewhere, Chelsea lacked the fine balance to save the team from losing.