Chelsea beat Atletico Madrid 2-0 on Wednesday (March 17) to succeed in the Champions League quarterfinals for the primary time since 2014 as Hakim Ziyech and Emerson Palmieri have been heading in the right direction to present coach Thomas Tuchel’s rejuvenated workforce a 3-0 mixture win.
Ziyech squeezed the ball beneath Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak within the thirty fourth minute of the last-16 second leg as he linked with a cross from Timo Werner who had raced down the left after being fed by fellow German Kai Havertz. The three gamers concerned within the purpose had come beneath stress after falling wanting expectations since they arrived as big-money signings at Stamford Bridge final summer time.
Substitute Emerson made certain of the victory with a 94th-minute strike on the break for Chelsea’s second purpose. Atletico have been left to rue referee Daniele Orsato’s resolution to not give a penalty when, with the rating at 0-0, Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta underhit a again cross and put his arm round Yannick Carrasco who went down within the field.
The leaders of Spain’s La Liga struggled to pierce Chelsea’s defence with the tireless N`Golo Kante offering further safety from midfield. Coach Diego Simeone hauled off Uruguay striker Luis Suarez within the 59th minute and changed him with Angel Correa to little impact as he didn’t repeat his feat of 2014 when he masterminded a Champions League semi-final win over the Blues.
The guests completed the sport with 10 males after Stefan Savic was proven a pink card within the 82nd minute for elbowing Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger within the chest at a nook. The win left Chelsea unbeaten in 13 video games since Tuchel changed Frank Lampard as coach in January. He has engineered a turnaround based on a defence that has let in solely two objectives beneath the German, who led Paris St Germain to final 12 months’s last.
“This is another top performance with a deserved win,” Tuchel informed BT Sport though he conceded he had been a ‘bit frightened’ by the penalty scare.
“They tried to press up very high in the first half but they opened up some spaces in the back of the midfield and we could exploit it and then scored a fantastic goal. It gave us a lot of confidence,” he stated.
Simeone stated Chelsea deserved the win. “The first game was more even but today they were superior to us. We tried to press them high and make it hard for them to play out from the back and we managed that occasionally,” the Argentine stated.
“I won’t look for excuses and whether or not it was a penalty. The referee made his decision. They were better than us and when your opponent is better you have to congratulate them.”
