Chelsea vs. Atlético: A Miracle, Please?

By: Al | October 20th, 2009

resinoforlan Miracles better happen because what’s “on paper” is really bugging the hell out of me now. If anybody has half of a football brain, they’ll know who Chelsea is and how much of a machine they are. On paper, they will not lose tomorrow because they haven’t lost a European match at home since losing to Barca back in like 2006. Also on paper, we are the inferior team and like to get scored on a lot. These thoughts don’t really help.

Atleti have had a bad start to the season that the last team I’d want to see them face right now is a team like Chelsea. When we’re in a crisis, our saving grace is being able to defeat small teams and slowly get our momentum back. In this scenario, Atletico is fresh off of getting crushed by a semi-small club and doesn’t seem too close to be gaining any momentum. The morale is quite low, which is why we need the miracle!

Us Atletico Madrid fans forgot what we were getting ourselves into when we kept on hoping that the team qualify for the Champions League. It hasn’t been easy witnessing the team struggle through the beginning of the season, especially in this competition. Not always do we have a season like last year’s, which probably looked average from the usual outsider (because of all the embarrassing losses) but was actually excellent in certain aspects. The team’s performance in the CL is one of those aspects. We managed two 1-1 draws against a Liverpool team that gives their all in this competition, and beat the hell out of PSV twice and beat Marseille. There was so much controversy after the first Marseille match and we ended up being more hated by some fans. I personally loved it.

This time around, we couldn’t even win the first match at home against the easiest team in the group. The upward walk up the mountain stalled and in the previous matchday after a solid 75 minutes at the Stadio Dragao, Porto finally racked up the goals and shut us out 2-0. Now we go into this match with only one point, tied with APOEL and behind Porto’s 3 and Chelsea’s 6. Mathematically we’re still in this but before anything, we need to win some matches. Win win win. That’s the only solution. This is why we can’t afford to be in a crisis any more. Whatever the deal is with the team, the players being unmotivated or Resino’s tactics falling flat, it has to stop for the sake of us progressing and moving up the group standings.

This match will be special for Diego Forlán because one of his bright moments with Man United was a last minute goal against Chelsea that helped the Red Devils win the Premier League in 2002/03 (I cannot find this video, so if someone can find it, please share). He’ll be glad to return to English soil once again, and this time with the right size spikes on his cleats (I hope you all got that). You can read an interview with Forlan on ESPN here. Dammit he is so awesome.

Chelsea

I won’t bore anybody with numbers because numbers are stupid. Pretty much, the past three years, Chelsea did no worse than reach the semi finals in the Champions League. What this has to do with the current group stage is irrelevant, but I’m just trying to explain how good they are in this competition.

Last season, they hiccupped quite a bit in the group stage, losing away to Roma and drawing at home to CFR Cluj, mostly because Scolari is an idiot. This time, European mastermind Carlo Ancelotti is under the helm at Stamford Bridge. The reason for his appointment is obvious: Roman Abramovic wants his hands on the European Cup. Who else would be as fit to do it than a two-time winner of the trophy?

So far into this campaign, Chelsea has churned out two 1-0 victories, one home to Porto and one away to APOEL. Not quite the convincing victories, but results are results and they are certainly going into the next round. They’ll go into this match with plenty of confidence, and will definitely not concede easily. Their defense, led by John Terry, doesn’t concede easily, as shown last season when Barca couldn’t break through until the very last minute. Don’t even mind the 4-4 against Liverpool. That game was just ridiculous. If I saw that match while tripping on acid I probably wouldn’t be alive right now. ANYWAYS. Chelsea is simply ridiculous so it won’t be easy. Simple as that.

The thing about Champions League matches is that they are always special, so I’m looking forward to the game no matter what. When the game starts, all that we supporters should do is obvious: stand behind the team and root til the end. Who knows, if Rubin Kazan could defeat Barca’s A team at home, anything can happen. This is still a game, so the last thing I want to do right now is eat my words if I say that Atletico will lose tomorrow. I’ll just watch while biting my nails off during the match.

Carlo Ancelotti:

ancelotti

It’s true that they didn’t win in the first two matches of Champions League, but they have enough quality to get two good results against us and move up to the head of the group.

They haven’t found a tactical set-up, a set system, but they have plenty of offensive capacity with Forlán and Agüero, players who can resolve a match at any moment

Abel Resino:

resinooo

“We know that we have to give our all. Something similar happened to us last year when we lost to Racing and then turned the situation around. We’re aware that we can only turn things around with hard work. Now, when things are going badly, it’s easy to see everything negatively, but we have everything we need to get out of the situation that we’re going through. We’re going to play against a great team and in a magnificent stadium; that’s enough motivation in itself.

“I think that the team is being punished more than they really deserve to be for the work they’re doing and the effort they’re making. The only thing that we need are two good results to turn the situation around. That way, we’d gain more confidence and would free ourselves from all this. We know that we can beat anybody and confront what is happening.

Chelsea is a great team, but we can beat anybody, so it’s not impossible.”

Diego Forlán

“Chelsea is a great team with plenty of experience in Champions League, they defend and attack very well. These are really nice matches to play in and the ones that professional footballers like. Atlético de Madrid is also a grand club and we have to show it,”

Clearly, I follow English football and I’ve seen our opponent. I know that they’ve conceded some goals on corner kicks in the last few matches, but I don’t think that it’s a weak point because they are a strong team.”

I arrived from the commitments with Uruguay very tired and resting against Osasuna was good for me. We have to give a good image in Champions and come out against Chelsea optimistically.”

ROSTER:

PORTEROS
1 Asenjo.
43 De Gea.

DEFENSAS
3 Antonio López.
16 Juanito.
17 Ujfalusi.
18 Álvaro Domínguez.
21 Perea.
22 Pablo Ibáñez.

CENTROCAMPISTAS
8 Raúl García.
9 Jurado.
11 Maxi Rodríguez.
12 Paulo Assunção.
19 Reyes.
20 Simão.
23 Cléber Santana.

DELANTEROS
7 Forlán.
10 Kun Agüero.
14 Sinama-Pongolle.

Enjoy.

AUPA ATLETI!

Random Atlético trivia: Diego Forlán’s nickname is “Cacha” which is what his teammates call him often.

more trivia: Kun Aguero’s favorite website is Youtube.