Champions League - Chelsea cruise past Atletico

Eurosport - Wed, 21 Oct 21:44:00 2009

Chelsea shrugged off talk of a defensive crisis with a clean sheet in a 4-0 win over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.

salomon kalou celebrate v atletico madrid (reuters) - 0

Defeat at Aston Villa at the weekend prompted talk of a defensive malaise, but Chelsea are made of stern stuff and two goals from Salomon Kalou, one from Frank Lampard and a late own goal moved the Blues to the brink of the knockout stages.

Atletico are a fine attacking unit, but Chelsea limited the threat of Diego Forlan and co. and Kalou made up for a couple of misses with goals on 41 and 52 minutes.

Lampard put some gloss on the performance with his first goal since August and an own goal in injury-time from Luis Perea saw Chelsea make it three wins from as many games in Group D.

There was no lack of confidence to Chelsea's early play, with Juliano Belletti twice in the opening minutes dashing down the right and whipping in dangerous balls that just failed to find Kalou.

Atletico's position in La Liga does not reflect the quality on their books and they served notice of their class on nine minutes when Simao Sabrosa left Michael Essien for dead with a glorious drop of the shoulder. A pin-point cross found Forlan seven yards out and his header was true, but Petr Cech was positioned perfectly to make the save at his near post.

Barely 60 seconds after Forlan's chance, Atletico really should have taken the lead. Sergio Aguero looked a shade offside when collecting a ball over the top, but the flag stayed down and he dashed in on goal. Only Cech stood between Aguero and parity, but the Argentine smashed his effort into the side netting.

Atletico have high hopes for keeper Sergio Asenjo, but he showed his inexperience when getting in a mess attempting to claim a Lampard free-kick. The ball squirmed through his grasp and over the line, but his blushes were spared by a linesman's flag.

Chelsea carved out a host of chances in the first-half, but none was more gilt-edged than the one Kalou missed on 18 minutes. A pass from Essien was cushioned into Michael Ballack's path by Deco, the German rolled the ball to Kalou and with the keeper beaten he had an open goal to aim at but somehow dragged his shot wide. It was a quite shocking miss.

Kalou atoned for his profligacy four minutes from the break, as a clever dummy from Ballack freed Ashley Cole down the left. His cross was perfect and from six yards the forward slotted home.

Chelsea dealt Atletico a sucker punch at the start of the second half, as Kalou pulled off his marker Antonio Lopez at a corner and powered his header beyond Asenjo from eight yards.

All that was lacking from Chelsea's point of view was a goal for Lampard. He had endured a barren run of 10 games without hitting the target but put it right 20 minutes from time when lashing home a low shot from the edge of the area.

Atletico's misery was compounded in injury-time as Parejo headed a Malouda free-kick into his own net.

The result was key for Chelsea following the defeat to Villa, but the excellent nature of the performance will have pleased Carlo Ancelotti.

Alex Livie / Eurosport

Comment 93 - 112 of 112

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  1. ALL HAIL THE BLUES FOR THEIR GREA PERFORMANCE!
    GOD­ knows that this CHAMPION'S LEAGUE IS COMING TO­ "STANFORD BRIDGE"
    ­ .......WATCH OUT! ..........HISTORY IS ABOUT to­ """""""""&­ quot;""""CHANGE"""&q­ uot;""""""""&qu­ ot;"""""""

    From chiazorj, on Fri 23 Oct 1:17PM

  2. Trivia bonus Question...
    What is a 'Bin­ Dipper'???....
    Abbreviation for "bin­ dipper" aka scouser..
    a derogatory­ term for a­ Scouser. A Liverpudlian. A resident of­ Liverpool­
    Scouser - Inhabitant of Liverpool(foeyP)(Self Pity­­ City).a devout fan of Lfc in Uk(FoeyP) & around the­ world....

    Habits:­
    Foraging for food in­ dustbins/Sewers/Drains &­ waste Dumpsite...
    a­ Hermaphrodite:has both male & female gonads...
    has­ foul smelling body odour...
    Addicted to­ grief/anxiety/dilemma­ & mental disorder..
    Mentally­ locked at the age of 12..
    Will fight with no­ provaction whatsoever..
    Acts like a complete­ r.etard/idiot & a moron..
    Granny/maid stabbing­ & a child raper­..
    a Stained sniffin undies/panty­ liners pervy­ filth B.astard..
    Compensation/Corruption­ & Bankruptcy claims..
    Drug/Alcohol­ abuse &­ weed/pipe smoking addict..
    Complete lack of­ humility­ or self deprecation of­­ oneself..
    Thieving/Vandalising/Molesting/Raping &­­ Sodomising...
    Depositing phlegm/mucus & Semen/hot­ j.ism on anyone within a 8­ ft radius when­ talking/mumbling or­ Jerking....
    Stabbing people in­ Stanley Park/kids­ playground/Joint alley &­ Liverpool trainin­­ ground..

    STAMPED..SEALED..DELIVERED...

    From Those Rats likes Bin dippin for free Cheeseburger, on Thu 22 Oct 1:11PM

  3. I think that somebody at Chelsea should tell Ivanovic­ that he cannot execute 40 yard crossfield passes. He­ should stick to the simple stuff instead of giving the­ ball to the opposition 75% of the time

    From KENNETH, on Thu 22 Oct 10:20AM

  4. if anyone wan'ks down the bog make sure you put­ bleach afterwards,you could by accident
    create mutant­ scousers,yids,gooners,mancs...

    From stirling lines, on Thu 22 Oct 10:16AM

  5. dont get me wrong guys im a chelsea fan & Atletico­ madrid where poor on the night,,,but do you guys not­ think that Chelsea looked average on the night,,their­ missing something guys,,maybe the special one!

    From Connor, on Thu 22 Oct 9:25AM

  6. 57 apart from spelling the other mistake youv'e­ made in my opinion, is failing to realise that real­ madrid have lost against any top opposition they have­ met ! just like liverpool ! they are never going to­ win the C/L or the league! ! barca are not performing­ as they can (and they lost to chelsea by the way last­ year ) man u are as vulnerable as ever ! chelsea are­ getting results and one team you fail to mention !­ arsenal !!!!!!! they must be in the mix ! i believe and­ ENGLISH side will win it although UEFA will desperately­ try to get barca in the final again against a madrid­ side (THE CHEATS) the final being their in may !

    From lemontreesid, on Thu 22 Oct 9:03AM

  7. 20years,ever since heysel&hillsborough it seems the­ club has got worse over the years
    with the exception of­ houllier's period...

    From THE FUHRER, on Thu 22 Oct 8:56AM

  8. stirling lines, I completey gutted about Liverpools­ current plight, massive injuries to big players, I­ don't know what Benitez has against Babel he has­ showed on his day he can be a tricky player yet did not­ even feature against Lyon??, Liverpool were in a­ similar position two years ago were they needed to win­ their last 3 chmp league games and they did it then got­ beat by chelsea in the semis. It only takes one game to­ change a season and I'm praying its the utd game­ this Sunday, if they are to win they be 4 points off­ utd if we are within 5 points of the top come xmas we­ still have a shout,

    From FoeyP, on Thu 22 Oct 8:50AM

  9. foeypan chris are the same person re sending the same­ messages

    From lemontreesid, on Thu 22 Oct 8:47AM

  10. foeyp..yahoo don't do nothing really,if you can get­ people posting bnp that should tell
    you everything..

    From THE FUHRER, on Thu 22 Oct 8:41AM

  11. foeyp..whats going on at liverpool??

    From THE FUHRER, on Thu 22 Oct 8:38AM

  12. @109..please don't put 8 year olds in the same­ bracket as some of the ones that are
    challenged in the­ grey matter..

    From THE FUHRER, on Thu 22 Oct 8:35AM

  13. Its nice to see other users not putting up with­ Chrls79M'UTD4life thoroughly disgusting sicko­ who is a confirmed stalker, I'm sure all utd fans­ are thoroughly distgusted in this sickos comments he is­ a complete embarrassment and an excuse for a human­ being. He comes on every chelsea and Liverpool thread­ spouting out complete vermin

    From FoeyP, on Thu 22 Oct 8:31AM

  14. Report Chrls79M'UTD4life he is a weird internet­ stalker who appears­ on every chelsea and Liverpool­ thread making threats­ and twisted pervy comments that­ have nothing to do with­ football, a real loser who has­ not ever been to manchester I'm sure other utd fans­ are disgusted by his sick comments

    From FoeyP, on Thu 22 Oct 8:29AM

  15. The average age of the people who post comments on­ these pages must be about 8. What a sad lot you all­ are.You're not even funny. All you seem to do is­ try and be the rudest and silliest on here. Leave these­ pages to us adults who can speak proper English without­ swearing, can spell correctly and only want to read­ constructive relevant comments on football. If you want­ to continue your childish slanging matches, go on to a­ chat line and leave these pages to us intelligent­ people.

    From Kenneth M, on Thu 22 Oct 8:22AM

  16. I thought chelsea would come a cropper last night but­ they were very impressive

    From FoeyP, on Thu 22 Oct 8:21AM

  17. Report Chris he is a weird internet stalker who appears­ on every chelsea and Liverpool thread making threats­ and twisted pervy comments that have nothing to do with­ football

    From FoeyP, on Thu 22 Oct 8:20AM

  18. I OM AT DA BATTAM AV DA MOST RATEED CAMMENTS. F OCK­ THOT SHIITE OM NAT HAVIN THIS. YAHOO IS OOT TE GET MAY.

    From Donney, on Thu 22 Oct 8:15AM

  19. A very impressive performance by Chelsea and they­ should have really won by a bigger margin if Kalou had­ not been so wasteful. I thought that everybody played­ well including the stand in players like Belletti and­ Ivanovich.

    I think that if they can get the transfer­ ban lifted, then with this talented (albeit aging)­ squad they will lift at least the Premiership and the­ Champions league this season. The other thing to look­ forward to is the collapse of the Yids false dawn and­ the bin-dippers finishing outside of the top 4 and­ potless once again.

    I suppose it would be too much to­ ask for to see Villa or Man city nick the 4th spot of­ of Arsenal.

    Bluesareme.

    From Tony T, on Thu 22 Oct 8:12AM

  20. 96 - GOOD KESTIAN PAL. IF A EVAR DO GET WAN IL BE SUR­ TE LET YE KNOW WEE MON. PS, AL DA BEST F UCKO.

    From Donney, on Thu 22 Oct 8:07AM
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