Atletico Madrid travelled to London tonight for their Champions League last 16 second leg against Chelsea, losing 2-0 to their much-superior hosts and seeing a man sent-off.
Los Rojiblancos had lost the first leg 1-0 at a neutral venue, with Diego Simeone setting up to secure a clean sheet only for his defence to be breached by Olivier Giroud.
Things didn’t get off to a great start for Atletico, however, despite the positive system Simeone went with.
Chelsea dominated possession and didn’t allow Los Rojiblancos to find their frequency, and took the lead on the night shortly after the half-hour mark after a lightning quick break.
Hakim Ziyech dealt the killer blow, putting Chelsea 2-0 up on aggregate and giving Atletico quite the mountain to climb.
Atletico’s task was made even greater ten minutes from time when Stefan Savic was shown a straight red for an off-the-ball elbow at a corner kick, reducing them to ten men.
Chelsea put the final nail in Atletico’s coffin in injury time, when Emerson capped another impressively swift counter-attack to make it 2-0 on the night and 3-0 on aggregate.
“Today is a difficult day,” Koke said post-match in comments carried by Marca. “We were all very excited about this competition, but we’ve always been on the back foot.
“In the first leg we weren’t as we should have been. Today, in the first half, they found spaces. We looked for solutions at half-time, but we couldn’t find them. After the red card, their second goal came and really killed us.”
Koke was defiant, however, when asked whether he doubted the strength of his team. “If we had doubts we wouldn’t go out to play. I have maximum confidence in this team, that we’re playing a great league season and we can become champions. Now we have Alaves, which is a final.”
