Atletico Madrid vs Chelsea FC
Football: Champions League − 2013/2014 − Semi-finals (first leg)
Atletico Madrid and Chelsea FC will battle for a ticket to the 2014 UEFA
Champions League finals. The 1st leg will be played at the Vicente
Calderon Stadium in Madrid.
Atlético Madrid can be fully satisfied at the moment. Simeone’s team has a magnificent time. In the Spanish Primera Division Los Rojiblancos occupy the leading position – with 85 points they have 6 points advantage over 2 Real Madrid and 7 over 3 Barcelona (both have one less game played). In the Champions League they managed to win quarterfinal against FC Barcelona (1:1 and 1:0). In these games Atletico were better organized and showed that they can beat everyone. They managed to completely pacify the stars of Barcelona – Messi and Neymar – and practically brought the Catalonians to their very end as the Tiki-taka-team. The performance Atletico is showing in the Spanish and Champions League can be a very serious threat to the Blues in the upcoming game. That’s why Atletico are perceived as a favorite of this semifinal.
Chelsea FC are in a very bad place at the moment. However they occupy 2 place
in the EPL, they surprisingly lost their last league
game against the last team in the table, Sunderland 1:2 – the
championship is moving away. The Blues are two points behind the leading
Liverpool, but the Reds have one more game to play, so the gap can be even more substantial. Moreover 3 Man City (71 points) have two more games to play, so theoretically can jump over the Londoners. Mourinho’s boys have to get over it and focus on the Champions League semifinal that will be very challenging. The opponent is in very good form
and if the Blues will play as they did against Sunderland they will
certainly be crushed. The Champions League quarterfinal against PSG wasn’t a very good
performance. 3:1 in the first leg indicated a very bad scenario for the
Londoners. But a 2:0 at home secured the semifinal – it’s difficult to
say if it was luck, good performance or the absence of PSG striker
Zlatan Ibrahimović that lead to this result. One way or the other
Chelsea have to show a better football and better focus to think about beating Atletico.
Possible line-ups:
Atletico Madrid (4-4-2): Courtois; Filipe Luis, Miranda, Godin, Juanfran; Koke, Arda Tura, Tiago, Gabi; Diego Costa, Raul Garcia
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; A.Cole, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Lampard, Ramires; Oscar, Schurrle, Willian; Ba.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; A.Cole, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Lampard, Ramires; Oscar, Schurrle, Willian; Ba.
Tuesday, 22 April 2014 20:45 GMT
Football: Estadio Vicente Calderon, Madrid, Spain
