UCL · Semifinals · 2nd Leg - Chelsea vs Club Atlético de Madrid

Chelsea and Atlético Madrid will play out a second leg Champions League semifinal at Stamford Bridge this Wednesday, April 30ᵗʰ, that will see the victor earn themselves a place in Europe's most prestigious competition's final in Lisbon on May 24ᵗʰ, 2014. A simple win would be enough to accomplish just that for the home side, while the visitors can triumph with either a win or a score-draw, a scenario which promises to set up an interesting tactical dynamic for Wednesday's affair.










The sides played out a dire, lifeless 0-0 draw in the first leg at the Vicente Calderón in Madrid 8 days before in a match that certainly didn't have any viewers on the edge of their seats, but which has nevertheless set up a second leg that will be all the more intriguing for the fact that both sides will feel they've every chance of booking for themselves a place in the Lisbon final next month.
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Chelsea are set to certainly be without goalkeeper Petr Cech, injured in the first leg last week, while José Mourinho says Eden Hazard and John Terry, the latter also falling victim to injury in the reverse fixture the week before, both have a chance of featuring. Samuel Eto'o, too, is a doubt for the hosts.
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Pretty excited for this, if we manage to win this game and Palace can take something off Liverpool next weekend then we could really have an exciting few weeks coming up.

Atlético are probably just as good as us at defending deep/withstanding pressure/parking the bus/whatever and they will play their strongest XI, it's going to be a really difficult match, just as we expected.

How do we defeat them? These are my guesses:

- Maintaining a solid defensive shape. I know, we'll have to score to progress but given the result at the Vicente Calderon, not conceding one is just as important. We showed that we are able to take whatever they throw at us, so as long as we don't go full force attack and leave huge gaps in the defence we should be able to contain their attacks. Having to drop deeper would also mean that we won't pin them in their own box but that we would have more room to operate our attacks.

- Set piaces. Like I said they defend extremely well so we need to take advantage of every single free kick (they're going to give away a lot of them) corners and even throw-ins. We'll have Cahill, Ivanovic, D. Luiz and maybe Terry too so it's very likely that we will score from a set pieces (please Oscar and not Luiz to take free kicks )

-Subs. Their common subs are Cristian Rodriguez, Sosa, Aldereiwereld, Adrian, and they're poor compared to their first XI. We're going to have Eden Hazard coming from the bench, they suffer those kind of LW that are able to dribble easily, cut inside and shoot, (at least against Barca Neymar was Barca's most dangerous player) and if he comes around the 60 minute their defenders are going to be tired and will have trouble to deal with him, furthermore if we manage to score prior to his entrance he's going to have a lot of space. We have Demba Ba too in the bench for emergency.

-Last but not least home advantage. We need just that one sparkle to boost our home support. For example in the 30 minutes after the two crossbars until Demba's goal against PSG it was as if you were there at the Stamford Bridge. And the fact that if there will be extra time we'll get to play 30 minutes more at home shouldn't be understimated.

Cech is fit........

JT Hazard Eto'o all trained..

Willian and Luiz both on 2 yellow cards and would miss the final with a booking tomorrow, btw.

If Willian is suspended for the final Schurlle is a fine replacement, but Luiz out would mean Ramires would start for sure


RM won't have xabi Alonso though

Ramires would be starting anyway imo.

Assuming we're in the final we'd be parking the bus for sure, this is what I'd go with


I'd go with ramires on the wing if Willian is out

I don't think this is oscars kind of game tbh

It depends how Oscar is playing. At the start of the season his defensive workrate was immense, and not only that he was making alot of interceptions/tackles and even slide tackles to win the ball high up the pitch. The only problem with that is he's dropped off alot and really needs to refind himself/rest up.

I actually see lot of players across clubs have dropped their intensity in the second half of season e.g. Messi, Oscar. I think they are saving themselves for the World Cup.

Let us just think about tomorrow -semi final and I see Oscar starting

I agree with both of you, lets take this one step at a time

Really excited for this game

Atletico will miss Gabi. We need to take advantage of that.

They also started a very strong XI on the weekend, lets hop that helps us out too

CHELSEA XI: Schwarzer, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Cole, Ramires, David Luiz, Azpilicueta, Hazard, Willian, Torres

Surprising selection with Azpi ahead of Cole in LM and Torres starting in place of Eto'o. Perhaps we intend to exhaust them to death and then bringing on adequate firepower to counter attack them?

Another boreathon incoming

TORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Torres

Would Torres not celebrate like that v Liverpool

Was vital we scored first.

Yup, if we can hold the 1-0 till ~75min mark then we really should be able to get them on the counter.

Defense hasn't looked as good as it did in the first leg or v Liverpool though

1-1

fatman123 wrote:Would Torres not celebrate like that v Liverpool

Yea but first love is always the sweetest. But I don't think he would, that's the club that made him a big football name.

Damn