11Blues: The Unofficial Chelsea Blog and News

UEFA Champions League
Group Stage
21st October 2009
Stamford Bridge

Salomon Kalou scored two goals as Chelsea beat Atletico Madrid 4-0 in the League Stage of the UEFA Champions League. The win, though expected, surprised one and all in the manner in which it was achieved.

Dull, Drab, Crap

The game promised quite a lot before kick-off, but an uninspired display by Madrid led to rest all hopes of an exciting encounter. Forlan and Ageuro tried to make chances, but the outcome never sufficed.

Chelsea, on the other hand, looked professional, meant business, scored 4 goals and won the game. Just that it seemed too easy. Chelsea just had to fancy a goal and it was theirs for the taking.

Kalou Scores Twice

Salomon Kalou must be feeling unlucky. With Drobga back, he is most certainly going to miss out on further Champions League games. But that did not deter him from scoring twice in this encounter.

Goal #1: A through ball from Deco to Ballack, who dummied it and off it went to A Cole. He just whipped it in low and flat, and Kalou just stuck his leg out to finish. Clinical play, good goal. Kudos to Ballack for the dummy, because if he had touched that ball, the flag would have gone up.

Goal #2: A repeat of James Collins’ goal against us a couple of days back. Free header for Kalou from a corner. The celebration was not quite Collin’s though.

Lamps into the Action, finally

Lampard scored after 10 games today, a clean and powerful shot, pierced the 3 foot gap between the goalkeeper and the post.

To sum up the game

An own goal by Parea in the 91st minute just summed the game up for Atletico Madrid.

Here are some of my twighlights:

1-0 at half time…i am quite happy with the offence…the defence still needs improvement…

i don’t think 1-0 should be our favorite scoreline…too risky

and of course we know that we havent been beaten in 19 games at home in the CL

game getting dirtier by the minute…Atletico look purposeless

giving Atletico what Aston gave us…simple unmarked free header….great work Kalou and the man marking him

5 atletico players marking no one…we got company

Sergio Ageuro was handed a chance, and he choked.. #defencestillsucks

Essien feels he has Riise’s soul in him…A shot from 35 yards out..

2-0 at 59 mins

Anelka shows his face for the first time today…where has he been on the field?

Anelka is a flag magnet.

Maxi Rodrigues comes in for Santana, if you care…

21st Goal in the CL for Lamps

attack after attack…we NEED someone to test the defence…what a waste of a game

its like the game is in slow motion…even the crowd is bored

Old fow Jose Reyes comes in for Simao

wow….another fav Daniel Sturridge in for Anelka (who?)

LMAO…Sturridge comes in place of anelka…and kisses the flag asap

Cech, just for fun, lets the striker come close

Belleti self destructs, gets a yellow

GOAL….looks like an OG …sums up the nite…

so at Full Time 4-0

Goals: 41′ 52′, Lampard 69′, Perea (OG) 90+1 …..very professional and boring display

So now you know that the game was boring, but comprehensive.

Some Stats:

Chelsea (4-1-2-1-2): Cech; Belletti, Ivanovic, Terry (c), A Cole (Zhirkov 74); Essien; Ballack; Lampard; Kalou (Malouda 72), Anelka (Sturridge 77).
Scorers Kalou 40, 51, Lampard 68, Perea(OG) 90.
Booked Belletti 85

Atlético (4-4-2): Sergio Asenjo; Ujfalusi, Perea, Alvaro Dominguez, Antonio Lopez (c); Cleber Santana (Maxi Rodriguez 65), Paulo Assuncao (Jurado 53), Raul Garcia, Simao (Reyes 76); Forlan, Aguero.
Booked Raul Garcia 73, Alvaro Dominguez 89.

Chelsea take on Atlético Madrid in what will be their third UEFA Champions League Group Stage fixture. Here is what the table looks like right now:

And here is what it SHOULD look like after today’s game:

No, I am not giving any goodies if you spot the mistakes, though if you did take pains to do so, you would have found out that the predicted score line here at 11blues is 3-1 to Chelsea. Hurrah!

Preparations for Atlético Madrid

Apart from worrying about our Mascot, Stamford the Lion getting kidnapped, the lads also had to worry about a minor thing known as defending. It seems they have worked on it. Here’s what Ballack had to say:

John’s reaction on the pitch showed how dramatic defensive shortcoming can be made out to be. Talking about shortcomings, Deco might have a role to play today, with the absence of Didier.

Oh, my bad. Quoted out of context. Here is what he actually said:

That’s what you need, emotions like that, to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We speak with each other. We have no problem criticising each other in the dressing room. A good team with strong players has to do this.

"We’ve done that, then we shake hands and get back on to the training pitch and try to do better.

"I wasn’t involved, not in the team, but I know the problem. I was there the next day and we spoke about it. Everybody has to make an impact on the situation, me too.

"I have to do this, not just because of my age. I have a few years behind me and have experienced a few situations. I’m experienced, so I have to speak to help the team. Everybody has to take responsibility, otherwise we will concede more goals.”

So at least someone is serious. Rather, someone is TALKING serious. All the seriousness in preparation would be tested against a desperate Athletico Madrid, a site so desperate to be accepted, it isn’t even the best club in its city.

I would be coming up with a few interesting things about Ath Mad in the following post, but this one is for the serious stuff. Or so it seems.

Teams

Chelsea

Drogba is suspended of course. Ballack should return after all that talk, and Bosingwa is still injured. Alex is also not yet fit. So the line-up should be from:

Cech, Hilario, Turnbull, Ivanovic, A Cole, Carvalho, Terry, Belletti, Hutchinson, Bruma, Essien, Lampard, J Cole, Ballack, Malouda, Zhirkov, Deco, Kalou, Sturridge, Anelka, Borini

Atlético Madrid

Well, no one’s telling me. So you will have to wait for this thing.

Tactical Suggestion: PLEASE DEFEND SET-PIECES BETTER

That’s all in this preview. Catch the game at 1945 UK time.

I would be live tweeting about the game. Catch all the action @11blues.

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