I think it is about 2:40 am back in London, so the lads are probably due to arrive back from Madrid. Who else is still up buzzing after that Batshauyi winner?

Hope we continue the momentum Saturday at the Bridge.

Come on you Chelsea!! 

 

This was a huge, huge win. This was the biggest challenge in the group stage, and we came away with all three points.

We were the better team on the night. We dominated the ball for probably 70 minutes. Atletico got, and kept the ball for most of the last 20 minutes or so, but then we got the last gasp goal.

 

Really impressive performance. David Luiz made a stupid challenge though.

Kante was everywhere.

Quote

Manager rating out of 10

10 -- With three in midfield and Hazard pushed right up alongside Morata, the shape of Antonio Conte's team was ideal to both combat Atletico's strengths and expose their weaknesses. The switch to a counter-attacking style late on worked as did his choice of replacements with both involved in the winner.

Player ratings (1-10, 10=best; players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)

GK Thibaut Courtois, 8 -- A solid display from the former Atletico man who pushed one stinging shot away and dealt with everything else comfortably.

DF Cesar Azpilicueta, 8 -- As dependable as ever in snuffing out attacks before they really got started. Played one delicious cross into Morata that evaded the striker by inches.

DF David Luiz 8 -- His lack of concentration was punished for the penalty but that was the only mistake in an excellent performance. His distribution was exemplary and he was dominant as the central member of the back three.

DF Gary Cahill, 9 -- Inexplicably, the club captain is maligned in some quarters of Chelsea's support but this display should change a few minds. Kept the much-vaunted Griezmann quiet all evening and also contributed in attacking situations.

MF Victor Moses, 7 -- Another to put in an extremely professional performance. Didn't pull up any trees either defensively or in attack but was always an option and made few errors.

MF N'Golo Kante, 8 -- The Frenchman's energy is one of the wonders of the modern game, as is his extraordinary ability to win the ball from seemingly impossible situations. Displayed both aspects for 90 minutes in the Spanish capital.

MF Tiemoue Bakayoko, 8 -- Apart from one loose pass that saw Atletico launch a dangerous counter-attack, the ex-Monaco enforcer physically dominated the centre of the pitch. Used the ball exceptionally well to show that he is a definite upgrade on the departed Nemanja Matic.

MF Cesc Fabregas, 7 -- A very disciplined game in which he was positionally correct and defensively sound. Didn't affect the game as decisively as he can but was still an asset despite his horror miss.

MF Marcos Alonso, 7 -- Was caused a few concerns by Angel Correa's pace, which kept him honest. Didn't deliver much of note from an attacking perspective until his cross found Batshuayi for the winner.

FW Eden Hazard, 10 -- Spectacular. This was the type of mesmerising display that has been commonplace by the Belgian in the Premier League and now he looks ready to really make his mark in Europe. Atletico had no answer in the first half and despite being kicked about during the second he still managed to create the equaliser.

FW Alvaro Morata, 9 -- The former Real Madrid man scored one and also had an excellent header saved as he ran Diego Godin ragged. His burgeoning relationship with Hazard bodes extremely well for the future.

Substitutes

FW, Willian NR -- His decision to take a short free kick in injury time looked flawed. He was proved right seconds later when the ball hit the back of the net.

FW, Michy Batshuayi NR -- Barely touched the ball until the last kick of the game when he was in the right place at the right time to finish emphatically.

DF, Andreas Christensen, NR -- Showed composure and confidence in his few minutes on the pitch.

Ratings from ESPNfc.com (http://www.espnfc.com.au/club/chelsea/363/blog/post/3214737/morata-hazard-budding-partnership-pays-off-in-chelsea-late-win-at-atleti)

More generous than my ratings but not unreasonable

3 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

If you look close you can see me in that crowd  the police kept us an hour after the game the fans kept singing this 

Sung to the tune of 'September' by Earth, Wind and Fire!

Terrific win, so of course knowing me I missed it again. 

Michy once again proves that while he kinda falls short as a leading PL striker, he is an excellent poacher/super-sub because he has the pace, finishing and anticipation to snipe late goals against tired legs. 

El Comadrejo (the weasel) couldn't weasel his way to a result here. Love it, especially given the setbacks we've suffered against his Atletico side in the past. 

Not like me to be optimistic, but if we can repeat this performance, then bring on City. 

What a win!!! Would have taken a draw too, but this win eases down everything. And what a way to go into such an important match against City.

By the way, i thought this was one of the best games I have watched in recent times. Both teams pressing the sh*t out of each other. Good defending, some great in-game tactics (the way simeone changed his set up after the half hour mark and let us have the initiative). 

Really impressed by the way we played.

Tibo - Decent game. His ball handling from set pieces is a great plus specially against a team like ATM who are deadly on set pieces. 8/10

Azpi - As usual, played his heart out. Played a couple of his balls to morata and that partnership is turning out to be a killer. 8/10

Luiz - Poor, sloppy and honestly it feels that he is reverting back to his time bomb type. The cruelty of defending is that you can do 100 things right but will be judged on that one moment which might cost the team dearly. Can see Andreas having replaced him by the end of the season 3/10

GC - I thought GC was great. Did not start very well when oncce he got turned on his ass. But really grew into the game. 7/10

Moses - One of his better performances. Really impressed by the workrate and his defending is improving game by game. Keep it up Big vic. 7/10

Kante-Baka: This midfield has the potential to be one of the deadliest ones ever. The number of times they just stopped the attack from building up. Simply immense. Also both are very underrated on the ball and the way they recycle the possession. 

Alonso - Just like Big vic, one of his better performances after a couple of worrying ones. Hope he shows something similiar on saturday too.

Cesc - Poor. I think the game simply flew past him. I know conte is one of the best managers out there, and I am simply a fan watching games on TV, but honestly dont understand what he brings to the team in a big game. Played a bit better as a DLP but really got found out in the first half. One of the worst performers yesterday. 3/10

Hazard - Deadly. And he is back. This is going to be one hell of a season with Hazard getting back to his best, and Kante-Baka dominating games the way they are. 9/10

Morata - MOTM for me today. Hustled and harried the ATM defence all night. Got some decisions his way, something that wont happen in PL as some of the physicality is acceptable in it. But getting those decisions really helped him, I feel. Brilliant performance and what a goal scoring streak he is on. Come on Alvaro. 9/10

 

Wow, what a performance. We deserved the win. Our playing was very smooth and articulate, I thought.

Kudos to the team and please keep up the momentum for the weekend against City.

Well that was fantastic!

Standing ovation for Kante, Hazard and Morata. The rest did really, really well too. 

3 points and this was  presumably to be our toughest fixture. Man I f**king love the world  today

That was our best match under Conte's management by far. I know, there were some victories like 1-3 City away, 4-0 United at home etc but the fact that we were away, playing the best side we've met for these two years and that PERFORMANCE. Its not about the result or the chances we had. Its about the bloody performance which was just incredibly good. Fabregas, Hazard and Morata is the ultimate trio in front, they proved this playing Stoke, now proved this again playing Atletiko Madrid away. This was the football I wanna watch. Hazard - hazard 90 minutes. Couldnt stop him. When Atletiko Madrid defense cannot do a damn against him, that means nobody can. Morata - clinical as hell. This  equalizer was potencially delivered last year many many times, but Costa wasnt that fast and that clinical as Morata is. Cesc was a little sloppy I think but when he posses the ball and around him flying Hazard and Morata - that's dangerous. 

Hope we see exactly the same 11 playing the City side. G

 

reat, great job by Conte again. Putting there Marcos Alonso in 93, considering that he had a bad game generally so far, totally shocked Madrid. What about Kante - have you ever seen him so active? This dude was the real deal. Madrid had no answer to his offensive performance. I believe those changes between Kante and Fabregas throughout the entire game, was the thing that really opened one of the greatest defense of our time. Conte is just a genius. Never seen Jose or Ancelotti to do something like what he did yesterday and what he did in the 2nd round against Spuds. They had the formula and they sticked to it untill the very end with minimum number  of changes.. Conte draws completely different formulas every time he wants to and Ive never seen tbh so far a bad experiment. 

Edited September 28, 20178 yr by Pendergast

Who said Morata was not strong ???

morata.mp4

Edited September 28, 20178 yr by frendz

Catching up on the comments posted . Watched the highlights and tried not to cheer out loud our two goals,especially the winner!

My younger son gets back at 2pm this afternoon from the game. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Amazing result and incredible performance from the boys!!! Nothing else new to add here that hasn't been said already! 

Though, not to sound like a debbie downer and in fairness to Athletico, they did play in a brand new stadium so it might not have felt quite like a proper "home" game to them which could have changed things

I couldn't get to sleep last night because I was buzzing after that result and now I am at work and can't work because I am still buzzing.

What an absolute master class of a performance and an unbelievable result. Massive. 

Atletico's record speaks for itself on home soil in Europe, and we not only beat them, we played them off the park. I would actually struggle to think of a better away performance in Europe from us. It was that good. 

That formation last night was just perfection. Ruidiger in for Cahill and I think that is my first choice starting 11, certainly against elite oppsoition anyway. The midfield of Kante, Fabregas & Bakayoko has it all for me. Imagine lining up against that as an opposition player. I think that can go toe to toe with anything in Europe, and that was demomnstrated last night. 

Conte got it absolutely spot on. Took the game to them, and we came out on top. How refreshing to see. Too many times we have appeared scared of top european oppsition; the days under Jose of parking the bus at home against 10 man PSG, and that god awful 0-0 draw away at Atletico (before being well beated at the Bridge in the return leg) are a thing of the past. Just shows how we have changed under Conte, and how good we can actually be. 

Oh and the new Bakayoko song is absolutely mustard!

Can't wait for Saturday now!!!

What evening !! BIG win from all of team, very stronger, in figth, in possesion, aggressivity, huge win for the confidence from the team !! 

With that system in 3-5-2 i think we have more the control of game, with this middle Kante-Baka-Fabregas wonderful ! Be led and come back like that waouh ! Respect for all the team

 

You have to imagine that if we beat Roma next the top spot is in the bag not accounting for any freak occurrences, we would be on 9 points, while athletico would likely be on 4 and Roma on 4 the Qarabag is almost a guaranteed 3 points so with 5 points to play with and atletico and Roma to play each other we could take it easy in those two games and still be top. 

Great result, perfect now bring on City.

My winning streak goes on just as well as Chelseas.

Bet Details	Date/Time	Stake	Return
Chelsea 2-1 @ 12/1 £10.00  Single	27/09/2017 19:44:08	10.00	130.00
Chelsea @ 16/5 £10.00  Single	27/09/2017 19:43:10	10.00	42.00
Atletico Madrid - Chelsea @ 40/1 £5.00  Single	27/09/2017 08:08:49	5.00	205.00

 

 

1 hour ago, JJP said:

Amazing result and incredible performance from the boys!!! Nothing else new to add here that hasn't been said already! 

Though, not to sound like a debbie downer and in fairness to Athletico, they did play in a brand new stadium so it might not have felt quite like a proper "home" game to them which could have changed things

I don't take that as a valid reason to be honest, it's not like they don't have any experience of playing on other pitches.

We were the better team, it's as simple as that.

11 hours ago, dkw said:

Outstanding result, that was an incredibly mature performance against a top quality side, we were comfortably the better side, created more chances and fully deserved the win. Madrid though, bunch of diving cheating w**kers, shove that up your tapas....

Too right about the diving and cheating.  When the whistle blew for the penalty, I was convinced it was actually for the outrageous dive, and was stunned when he pointed to the spot.  The Luiz slight tug wasn't even the worst foul going on in our box at that time by both sides, let alone a penalty, given the way that our players had been manhandled in the Atletico box shortly before.  The major blight on game these days is refereeing inconsistencies.  I don't think they are corrupt, I think that the vast majority are just f**king useless.

I said to my wife at the time that this thread would be going into a blamestorming meltdown about Luiz, and, reading through, I see I was right.

Up there with some great Chelsea nights. What made this one special was wondering beforehand how we would do being back on the big stage - and right from the start we knew straightaway as the team tore into Atletico.

P.S. I missed the first couple of minutes. Did Morata get a nasty dig from someone as he seemed to be wincing and hobbling for a few minutes?

18 minutes ago, Kev56 said:

Great result, perfect now bring on City.

My winning streak goes on just as well as Chelseas.

Bet Details	Date/Time	Stake	Return
Chelsea 2-1 @ 12/1 £10.00  Single	27/09/2017 19:44:08	10.00	130.00
Chelsea @ 16/5 £10.00  Single	27/09/2017 19:43:10	10.00	42.00
Atletico Madrid - Chelsea @ 40/1 £5.00  Single	27/09/2017 08:08:49	5.00	205.00

 

bang on kev 

 

I missed all of this match, as I was out with work at a brewery! Free food and beer at least!

At 1-0 down I thought the game was gone, I assumed it ended 1-1 when I looked around the 90 minute mark, came home to a wonderful surprise!!

A great win. 

Gerrard and Ferdinand with Frank last night on BT were all really complimentary about our performance. Gerrard even said that he's glad Bakayoko tackle went unpunished as Chelsea deserved to win!