▲ Atletico loses 0-2 against Chelsea ▲ Suarez, no goal for the Champions this season ▲ Suarez, no score in 25 games for 5 years away from the Champions ▲ Suarez, 26 points in 66 total matches for the Champions
[골닷컴] Reporter Kim Hyun-min = Atletico Madrid’s flagship striker Luis Suarez was once again silent in the Champions League and had to watch the team drop out of the round of 16.
Atletico lost 0-2 in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 in the 2020/21 season on their way to Stamford Bridge. Atletico, who had already lost 0-1 in the first game home, had to drink early elimination by losing in the second game.
In this match Atletico came out with a 4-4-2 formation. Luis Suarez and Juan Felix came on two-tops, Yannick Carrasco and Marcos Lorente took on the left and right side midfielders, and Koke and Saul Niguez formed the double volante (a position term referring to the two defensive midfielders). Henann Roddy and Kieran Trippier were in charge of the left and right flanks, Jose Jimenez and Stefan Savich started as central defenders, and the goal was kept by goalkeeper Jan Oblak as always.
It was Atletico, who needed victory in order to advance to the second game, who fought more aggressively in the early stages. However, as referee Daniele Orsato’s criterion was on the generous side, the flow of Chelsea’s foul play began to shift little by little.
In the process, Chelsea took the lead by scoring the opening goal around the 34th minute. Kai Haberts, who started as the forefront offensive, stabbed a sensible forward pass in the counterattack situation, and Timo Werner connected it with a ground-ball cross, and Hakim Ziech lightly scored the goal with a non-stop shot.
Afterwards, Chelsea played the game in a leisurely manner and attacked Atletico. Atletico, on the other hand, had to repeat a monotonous pattern of attacks that depended solely on Felix, as Suarez had no influence in the attack due to his sluggish movement.
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At the start of the second half, Diego Simeone Atletico changed to a three-back by subtracting Roddy and replacing Mario Hermoso. Then, in the 8th minute of the second half, attacker Musa Dembele was used instead of Carrasco to strengthen the attack. In the second half of the 13th minute, he subtracted Suarez and added Angel Correa, and in the second half of the 24th minute, he substituted midfielder Tomarma instead of Trippier, making changes one after another.
With some of these changes taking effect, Atletico launched aggressively in the last 15 minutes. However, in the 36th minute of the second half, Savich, who participated in the attack in a corner kick situation, was sent off as he struck Ludiger’s masterpiece with his elbow, and Atletico was inferior in number. He even paid an extra goal to defender Emerson. As it is, the match ended with Chelsea’s 2-0 victory.
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It can be said that Chelsea performed better throughout the game. In fact, Chelsea dominated the market share with 56 to 44, and also surpassed the number of shots by 16 to 10. It was Chelsea who won the game more skillfully and easily won.
However, what was regrettable in Atletico’s point of view was the sluggishness of the believed gun Suarez. Suarez was the fewest among the starting players in this game, with only 19 ball touches. The pass was only 9 attempts, and even that, the success rate was only 66.7%.
Still, Suarez was an exceptionally small player if he only entered the Champions League. His Champions League career score is 26 goals in 66 matches, which is a shabby figure compared to his contemporaneous rivals Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski (72 goals) and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema (70 goals).
The bigger problem is that Suarez was exceptionally weak on his Champions League outing. He has had no Champions League away goals in the six years since scoring a goal in the round of 32 group stage against Rome on September 16, 2015. He couldn’t score a goal again this time, and he had to go through the scoring of scoring no goals in 25 Champions League away games.
He left Barcelona this season and joined Atletico, scoring 18 goals in the Primera Liga alone, leading the team’s first place. However, in the Champions League, he played in six games and scored no goals, providing the cause of early elimination. Obviously, Suarez is a great striker who shined in the 2010s, but this time again, he lost his face while still silent on the Champions League stage.
Luis Suarez extends his away leg goal drought in the Champions League to 25 games Grimacing https://twitter.com/brfootball/status/1372300463853424641/photo/1
— B/R Football (@brfootball) Mar 18, 2021