Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to key eventsSkip to navigation

Atlético Madrid dropped out of the Champions League after failing to hold onto their lead, and Chelsea dropped to second place after failing to take their chances

 Updated 
Tue 5 Dec 2017 16.56 ESTFirst published on Tue 5 Dec 2017 13.45 EST
Eden Hazardshakes hands with Jan Oblak at the end of the match.
Eden Hazardshakes hands with Jan Oblak at the end of the match. Photograph: John Walton/PA
Eden Hazardshakes hands with Jan Oblak at the end of the match. Photograph: John Walton/PA

Live feed

Key events

A couple of Chelsea players have a chat. Firstly, Gary Cahill:

I felt second half we more than deserved the win. We had some fantastic chances. Pleased with the performance, asking myself how’ve we not won that in the end, to be honest. I think overall the performance was very good. I thought their goalkeeper was fantastic today. One of those days. He’s had an amazing game which has got them a point at the end of the day.

And also, Eden Hazard:

The only problem, the goalkeeper was on fire. We should score more goals, win the game and finish first in the group. It’s not a problem [who we get in the next round], we are Chelsea. We are a top team, so we can face any team. We can do everything.

This result has gone down particularly well in Rome.

Roma’s players celebrate at the end of the match against Qarabag. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

The whole of the #Roma squad waited in front of their fans for final few mins of #ChelseaAtleti. As soon as the big screen showed it was over, there was a huge cheers from players and fans. Roma top group.

— Daniella Matar (@DaniellaMatar) December 5, 2017
Share
Updated at 

Well it took its time, but it turned, in the end, into a fun match – or at least a fun final half-hour. Chelsea had enough chances to have won it with some ease, but a combination of disappointing finishing, a couple of near-misses and an excellent display of goalkeeping from Jan Oblak frustrated them.

Final score: Chelsea 1-1 Atletico Madrid

90+4 mins: With a couple of seconds of the indicated four minutes of stoppage time still to play, the referee has had enough. Atletico crash into the Europa League, and Chelsea take second place in Group C.

90+2 mins: So close to a winner for Chelsea! Batshuayi chests a long ball down to Fabregas and runs onto the return, bursts into the box and then, from an angle, shoots across goal and just wide of the far post!

90+1 mins: Correa, 20 yards out, scoops a shot ludicrously high. It was certainly further away from goal when it crossed the goalline than it was when Correa took his shot.

90 mins: The referee got it wrong: Cahill did touch the ball, but then so did Correa. It should have been a goal kick.

89 mins: Carrasco sends in a poor free kick from the left but somehow it ends up with Correa on the far side, and he seems to be taken out inside the penalty area by Cahill. There may have been a touch on the ball, though, as the referee gives a corner.

88 mins: Atletico still need Qarabag to do them a favour in Rome, but shouldn’t get their hopes up: Roma have 18 shots to their three so far.

86 mins: We go into the final five minutes in an excellent position, in that both sides need to score. Anything could happen now.

84 mins: A fine crossfield ball finds Correa on the right, and his low centre skims across goal with Griezmann flinging himself at it in vain!

83 mins: Incredible miss from Willian! Hazard pulls the ball back from the left and Willian, level with the penalty spot and all on his lonesome, need only thrash it into the net! He thrashes it over the bar!

Willian dejected after missing a good chance. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters
Share
Updated at 

80 mins: Hazard chases after an overhit Moses cross and then slows down, hoping that a clumsy defender will come and push him over. Partey comes and pushes him over. It’s mildly cynical from Hazard, I suppose, but Partey really did properly barge into him. The referee gives a goal kick.

79 mins: And now they have brought Luciano Vietto on and taken Gimenez off. They have no more dice to throw.

76 mins: Terrible miss from Morata! Fabregas is played in behind a suddenly undermanned defence. Two red shirts run towards him so he passes inside to the unmarked Morata, who from the edge of the area and a central position has only the onrushing Oblak to beat. He doesn’t beat him.

GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Atletico Madrid (Savic own goal, 75 mins)

Fabregas’s corner is headed back to him, and this time his cross is headed out to Hazard. The Belgian runs into the box and drives a low shot into a thicket of legs, one of which belongs to Stefan Savic, who diverts it into his own net!

Eden Hazard’s shot is deflected in by Stefan Savic. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images
Share
Updated at 

72 mins: As things stand, you see, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City top their groups, and Chelsea can’t play another English side in the next round. So they will play one of the other group winners, who as I type are Barcelona, Paris St-Germain and Besiktas. Two-thirds of those options aren’t very enticing.

71 mins: Willian is about to come on for Chelsea, who need a goal if they are to avoid a potentially nightmarish draw in the next round.

68 mins: Goalline clearance! Moses now gets down the right and crosses to Pedro, who flicks the ball between his legs and towards the far post, where Gimenez, who was battling with Morata and knew nothing about it, falls over and lands in the perfect spot to accidentally stop the shot with his torso! Oblak gathers, and then stays down, apparently hurt.

Alvaro Morata is denied by Jan Oblak. Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Action Images/Reuters
Share
Updated at 

67 mins: A short corner is played back to Fabregas, who gets to the byline and drives a hard cross to Christensen, who dives, connects, and misses a gaping goal!

67 mins: Pedro gets into the area and to the byline, and sends in a low cross that is desperately cleared.

65 mins: Atletico attack again, and Carrasco passes to Griezmann who lets the ball roll across his body, cocks his left foot and then falls over mid-shot, skewing it wide.

63 mins: Chelsea had started the second half very brightly, and Atletico have only got forward twice. Once they hit the post and once they scored.

60 mins: Bakayoko gets into the penalty area but Lucas Hernandez nips in front of him and gets a shirt-tug for his troubles. Free kick.

57 mins: Bakayoko was supposed to be marking Saul there, but he totally stopped concentrating when the ball headed to the near post, and is surely in for some hairdryer action at some point this evening.

GOAL! Chelsea 0-1 Atletico Madrid (Saul, 56 mins)

Atletico win a corner on the right, which is flicked on by Fernando Torres and loops to Saul, all alone at the back post, whose task is simple!

Niguez heads in the opening goal. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
Share
Updated at 

54 mins: GOAL! Not in this game, mind. Roma are a goal up against Qarabag, Perotti scoring in the 53rd minute.

53 mins: Atletico hit the post! From nowhere! Filipe Luis takes a shot from 30 yards that bounces and strikes the meat of the far post and rebounds to Koke, whose diving header is saved by Courtois!

50 mins: Another chance! Morata meets Fabregas’s corner with a fine header, but Oblak makes a difficult save look ridiculously easy.

Eden Hazard rues another missed chance. Photograph: John Walton/PA
Share
Updated at 

49 mins: Then Hazard runs into the area, checks onto his right foot and his shot hits Hernandez and deflects wide.

49 mins: A real chance for Chelsea! Hazard crosses from the left and Christensen, unmarked, heads too close to Oblak.

Andreas Christensen heads at goal. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters
Share
Updated at 

47 mins: Christensen lets a limp palm touch Griezmann’s shoulder, and the Frenchman flings himself to the turf ridiculously. It is, the referee decides, a free kick, and Griezmann gets up to sent it goalwards, where Courtois catches.

Share
Updated at 

46 mins: “How can you be steamrollered without significant contact?” wonders Mel, not unreasonably, of Cahill’s pre-interval challenge on Griezmann. Cahill realised he couldn’t win the ball, pulled out of his challenge, but his momentum carried him into his opponent. There was contact, and Griezmann may have been unbalanced, but that was about the extent of it.

46 mins: Peeeeep! Atletico need to take the game to where they feel we can hurt Chelsea, but then they knew that (see preamble for details).

“I’m sure we’re going to see a lot more action in the second half,” says Michael Owen as the players come out. I admire his confidence. Time will tell.

Half time: Chelsea 0-0 Atletico Madrid

45+1 mins: That’s all for now. It has been, to be frank, a bit dull, but Chelsea have had a couple of decent shots along the way.

45 mins: Fabregas’s fine cross is cleared to the edge of the area, where Griezmann clears and, just as the ball disappears, is steamrollered by Cahill. Lots of Atletico players seem very unhappy about this, but the referee is unbothered. Rightly, as there was neither malice nor actually significant contact.

Antoine Griezmann is on the floor after colliding with Gary Cahill. Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Action Images/Reuters
Share
Updated at 

44 mins: Atletico still have the ball. This must be among the longest and most boring “attacks” in football history. Eventually Kante nicks it, dances beautifully past a couple of challenges and is clattered by Gabi.

42 mins: Atletico have the ball for an age, working it across Chelsea’s penalty area, out to the left, back across, and then back to the halfway line, without ever looking even interested in getting it into the box.

38 mins: Then Fabregas finds space on the left of the area, but there’s nobody for him to cross to when he needs to cross it, and by the time Bakayoko bursts into the box there are all sorts of defenders around, and though he’s picked out his shot flies wide.

37 mins: Close! Zappacosta cuts in from the left again, but instead of shooting high across goal, as he did the last time he was in a similar position, he goes low towards the near post, and Oblak only just claws it away!

Atletico Madrid’s Jose Gimenez challenges Davide Zappacosta. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Share
Updated at 

36 mins: Qarabag are doing their bit on Atletico’s behalf, restricting Roma to just one shot on target, and two shots overall.

34 mins: Hazard bursts into space and into the box, but hits his pass straight into a defender. It rebounds back to a blue shirt, and Moses spots Zappacosta all alone on the left, but Oblak catches his cross.

Most viewed

Most viewed