Well well....what a result...id never have thought it.....well done oliver and the team....i have of course eaten my pants as promised....looking forward to manx with a little extra hope

I know Atletico were missing quite a few players but they still had plenty of offensive options available to them and I was surprised at just how deep they set up. 

We had a couple of wobbly moments early on where we were making silly errors under the slightest hint of a press along the back but by the 10th minute it was almost as if Atletico gave up on that tactic and were content to sit deep and let us have the ball. Even when they won back possession they rarely looked to break on us and a couple of tactical fouls easily snuffed out that threat. 

After we scored they sort of had a go but they didn't have the first idea of how to make any impact on us. The introduction of Kante came at a good time, he helped snuff out a lot of stuff following our goal. 

The back three were very good last night, Rudiger and Dave were stepping forward to join the attack with confidence. 

I thought James was going to start at right wing-back last night but Tuchel made the right call with CHO who did a good job with pegging them back and was unlucky not get through into space a few times due to some overly weighted through balls. 

Mason Mount just gets better and better. Considering he's still new to European football he didn't look phased at all last night, they waxed lyrical about a Jack Whilshire performances against Barca years back... It wasn't quite on that level but for a young accademy player playing against the Spanish league leaders he was great. 

Giroud once again come up clutch when it mattered most, he's continued to be a shrewed buy for us and it's only a shame he's 34. There's a good chance he'll leave at the end of the season and he's going to be a tough player to replace. 

All in all a very good night's work. 

Mason has been fantastic, some of the movement and skills he pulls off are getting better and better, I just want to see more goals from him as he is more than capable.

I want to see a future midfield involving him and Havertz, as I believe they will add a lot to the team, It is just finding the balance with who sits in there with them between Kante/Kovacic/Kante, with Kova getting the nod overall out of those 3.

14 hours ago, dkw said:

At least we would have seen goals...

I had my quota of goals earlier in the evening - my local team Shrewsbury were 3-0 up in 20 minutes!  ?.  Not often I get two such good results in a matter of 3 hours!

14 hours ago, Imran_CFC said:

That came off the defender

Just catching up on the match chat from last night.  Well done Imran for calling that straight away!

51 minutes ago, Beerqueen said:

I had my quota of goals earlier in the evening - my local team Shrewsbury were 3-0 up in 20 minutes!  ?.  Not often I get two such good results in a matter of 3 hours!

Strawberry? lol

6 hours ago, Valerie said:

I did   Imagine waking up to a win 

Better than the 2am mouse removal service I had to wake up and provide. f**king bastard cat!

Great result . But we got a very dangerous second leg to come.

As for Mendy , the whole street must of heard the " Mendy you c+nt "  shout of despair from me at the beginning !

anyway well done Chelsea, on to the next win

come on you BLUES !

2 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Better than the 2am mouse removal service I had to wake up and provide. f**king bastard cat!

When I was v young I used to think that cats were ladies and dogs were men.

of course I know it's the other way round now but it seemed to make sense at the time.

still does now I think about it

6 hours ago, Beerqueen said:

I had my quota of goals earlier in the evening - my local team Shrewsbury were 3-0 up in 20 minutes!  ?.  Not often I get two such good results in a matter of 3 hours!

I spoke to someone at work today who is a Shrewsbury season ticket holder, he is a Leeds fan and his son is a Chelsea fan - so three matches watched last night and extremely pleased with all three!

20 hours ago, TomCFC85 said:

I'm not getting carried away here but I reckon we'll win the Champions' League 

Giroud is the first Chelsea player to score 6 goals in the Champions League since Didier Drogba in 2011/12....

Such an impressive performance last night. Bar one or two moments (mostly involving Mendy), thought we played really well and pretty much bossed it. Was always worried that we wouldn't turn all that good play into a goal and they would nick an undeserved goal but thankfully we got the 1-0 and unlucky we don't have a bigger lead to take into second leg.

Now let's smash United on Sunday.....................!

 

Definitely an enjoyable game but last night has left me with one burning question.

Do Diego Simeone and Andros Townsend share the same hairdresser?

This match reminded me why I dislike watching La Liga. Sure, there are plenty of great technical players but the amount of diving at the slightest touch, rolling around on the floor in fake agony, constantly ganging up on the referee appealing to punish the opponents with cards and turning every 50-50 contact into a Mexican soap opera episode was utterly cringeworthy.

Edited February 25, 20215 yr by abramovich

36 minutes ago, abramovich said:

This match reminded me why I dislike watching La Liga. Sure, there are plenty of great technical players but the amount of diving at the slightest touch, rolling around on the floor in fake agony, constantly ganging up on the referee appealing to punish the opponents with cards and turning every 50-50 contact into a Mexican soap opera episode was utterly cringeworthy.

It was disgusting, they were more interested in all that sh*te than they were in playing football. Maybe if they had tried to just actually play the game they would have done better. Barcelona were the masters of getting at refs, would constantly be at them at every single little foul, which would almost always lead to bookings for fouls that didnt deserve bookings. Suarez`s cheating the other night was beyond anything we usually see and I cant believe nothing is being said about it. The one`s against Dave and Rudiger were unbelievable.

You always get this carry on against Spanish teams. I just don't know why the referee doesn't take action against players who keep pressuring the referee. After every single incident Koke was in the referees face signalling a card, that should've been verbal warning for him, then a yellow, then a sending off. He didn't even get a warning from the referee. 

I can't remember any of our players behaving like that. 

Good ref too.  Done a lot of important games in Europe.