Atletico Madrid 1 Leicester 0

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Just now, eastendfox said:

We have to play Slimani second leg rather than Okazaki. And be ready to use Gray as an impact sub second half. Reckon we can get a goal or two, but not sure whether we can avoid conceding

 

I'd be tempted to start with 5 in midfield again. 

 

We need to both keep it tight and dominate that midfield area more to help build an advantage. 

[kushiro]

Just to put it in perspective:

 

Teams that were never in it:             Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool

 

Teams that are out:                           Man City, Arsenal, Spurs

 

Teams that are feeling shit tonght:   Barcelona, Bayern Munich

 

Team with it all to play for:                Leicester City

 

[Milo]

Just now, Col city fan said:

As I said as soon as the draw was made, Atletico were probably the best draw we could have gotten, with the exception of Dortmund. Apart from Griezmann, they are not a side full of flair. They are solid, grind you down and eke out wins.

Tonight, I think Shakey set us up exceptionally well. And I do mean exceptionally. We limited them to very few real chances and we now have a very real chance of progressing through to the semis. 

An away goal would have been nice, but we didn't look like sneaking one..we just weren't set up to.

Finally...can we not play a match at the Vicente Calderon without having to suffer a fookin cheat of a referee?! Again, tonight... he gave us just about nothing.

This...

 

Agree completely  

[midland_red]

24 minutes ago, SlaneyLCFC said:

Daft question but this means we now need 2 goals and also keep a clean sheet on Tuesday?

we need to win 2-0 or 3-1. WIn 2-1 and they go through on away goals

[Sharpe's Fox]

If we can go into any second leg behind I'm glad we can go in to it with a greivance. Should really hype the players up, that.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Anyone else hear the City Fan who phoned 5live and started by saying the game was, "a damp squid", called Phil Neville, "Gary", and rounded off by expressing his concerns that the ref tonight would also be reffing the home leg?

 

 

[Guest Mickyblueeyes]

What if...seriously what if...I don't know how good that would feel. I might go crazy

[MPH]

5 minutes ago, Lovejoy said:

Slightly disappointed with the lack of ambition, I don't think we're good when we park the bus. That said, given the ref, we've escaped intact.

 

 

How do you define good?

 

 

we have just limited one of the most prolific teams in the competition, finalists in two of the last three seasons to a hotly desputed penalty AND THATS IT.  A fantastic performance if you ask me.

[lgfualol]

Benny looked comfortably playing against such a good side. He was really awesome and all he needed was a chance. 

 

Drinkwater and Mahrez were very poor. Unsure how Mahrez didn't get taken off near the end. 

 

0 shots on target aint pretty but at 1 nil, who gives a ****. Let's kill em at the KP. 

[Guest Col city fan]

Just now, MPH said:

 

 

How do you define good?

 

 

we have just limited one of the most prolific teams in the competition, finalists in two of the last three seasons to a hotly desputed penalty AND THATS IT.  A fantastic performance if you ask me.

Completely agree. That was a very very good display tonight. Huth was a rock. Massive shame he's missing for the second leg.

[limeydale]

4 minutes ago, kushiro said:

Just to put it in perspective:

 

Teams that were never in it:             Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool

 

Teams that are out:                           Man City, Arsenal, Spurs

 

Teams that are feeling shit tonght:   Barcelona, Bayern Munich

 

Team with it all to play for:                Leicester City

 

To be a Leicester City Fan                  Priceless.

[orangecity23]

Great effort from the lads, very proud of the team and delighted its all to play for in the second leg.

 

Can't shake the sickening feeling in my stomach though, to be watching history repeat itself 20 years on. That was an absolutely appalling refereeing display, he's 100% got to be out to fix it tonight. That penalty wasn't even close to being in the box. Complete lack of bookings for Atletico, even when they are mowing down Mahrez from behind. Every single opportunity to give them a free kick was taken. If the block on Mahrez was made at the other end of the pitch it would have been given as a penalty, no doubts about that. He's looked for it, but he's beaten his man and there's clearly been contact, instigated by the defender. Some of the free kick decisions in open play were absolutely inexplicable, the body check on Okazaki outside the box, Mahrez winning the ball clearly in the second half but being blown up, not to mention the Vardy 'phantom' push in the first half, where he has apparently pushed a defender without moving his arms. To top it all off, on two separate occasions when we were breaking, the ref has managed to run into the way of our player on the ball. Very snide and sneaky performance for me, done everything possible to help Madrid, but tried to be subtle about it by not giving any red cards and waited for his 'honest' mistake to give a pen.

 

Finally, seeing one of our coaches get sent off for being outside the technical area, then to immediately see a shot of that scumbag Simeone outside his box constantly immediately afterwards is just a clear indication that we were playing to a different set of rules to the hosts.

 

I think we can expect that Uefa will have managed to dig out another 'quality' official for the second leg, so we have to be on his back from the first whistle. Atletico have demonstrated that they will cheat in every possible way to win, so we have to create our own vociferous atmosphere to put pressure on these corrupt officials, so we can have at least have a chance of a level playing field.

[MC Prussian]

14 minutes ago, Webbo said:

Neither keeper made a save worth the name. Did we even have a shot?

Albrighton in the first half springs to mind, and an attempt by Mahrez in the second half (but that came more out of the blue, as a consequence of a bad clearance attempt by Atlético in their own box, I think).

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

28 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

Centre backs were amazing. Everyone else may as well not have been been there.

 

We were well outclassed, yet robbed by the referee, and no one can convince me he wasn't under some incentive to give decisions to Atletico.

 

Tactically and individually I thought we were poor and it's going to be very tough. I accept we've got worse players but we really didn't give ourselves a chance to score the away goal.

 

I just wish we'd have had a go.

Your posts are usually very good imo. But think you're wrong this eve. We were not outclassed whatsoever. Compare with Sevilla away when we were. Tonight was a very reasonable away performance in a European cup tie where the aim has to be to be in it at home. Yes Atletico are good at one nils but I thought tactically Shakey got it right after the interval. All to play for.

[Kendal Fox]

Well done to the lads. Even more so after the very harsh penalty, just to keep us in it.

Will be tough as we need to score at least 3 goals should they score 1 but it's not impossible. *Cue Leicester Make the Impossible Possible!*

Can't have any real complaints other than the ref/penalty. Maybe the 5 changes at the weekend really did keep us fresh enough to grind out a 1-0 loss, if that makes sense?!

[jayfox26]

17 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

Thing is though, they didn't look anything special, and don't forget they were at home

I agree, they didn't create much but they are so well organised defensively, it will take something special for us to break them down. I still think we can get a result though  

[danfox76]

21 minutes ago, dylanlegend said:

Wow either your a troll or you don't understand football. This is Athletico Madrid not Rotherham Utd

what difference does it make if its Athletico or Rotherham? it dosen't stop you pressing and closing down the opponent ... we should have pressed them when they had the ball like we did to Liverpool a few games ago... instead we let them do it to us, we gave them way to much time on the ball and they gave us none.. i think it is you that doesn't understand football... although i will admit when we did press them they did get very lucky with the second balls and rebounds finding their men.

[iamafox]

We may not have played brilliantly but we certainly pulled out a heroic defensive display in the 2nd half.

 

The penalty decision was harsh but the pleasing thing was that the players got on with the game and showed immense levels of concentration.

 

Bring on the 2nd leg.

 

 

[Joefox]

I'd have taken that before the start of the night if im being honest. A great performance from the lads. And that's all you want to see. 100% commitment. Still in with a good chance to go through to the semi finals.

Mental.

[Gary Eatfood]

4 minutes ago, jayfox26 said:

I agree, they didn't create much but they are so well organised defensively, it will take something special for us to break them down. I still think we can get a result though  

Or Morgan's thigh.

[sm1]

10 minutes ago, englebert said:

What's Drinky got to do with it. Either Mahrez was dreadful (he was) or he wasn't.

Drinky's been shit for ages, so his performance didn't surprise me, but Mahrez was truly dreadful. His passing was woeful, constantly over hitting the ball, and what really surprised me was his lack of pace, he seems unfit.  Why Gray wasn't brought on at some stage to give us an outlet and relieve pressure was a little strange.

Overall the result is what matters and we're still in it.

[fuchsntf]

So now for some c, but short analyst Views.

Team..brilliant..backs to the wall job.

Huth excellent

Benny...MOM...a wall

Simpson and Mahrez defensively excellent

Mahrez going forward 2-3 players shutting him out immeditely, he wasnt poor just closed down. AM did a job.

Drinkwater slightly better than the last few weeks, but too much asked of him.Also gave the ball far too often away

Ndidi, in front of the CBs brilliant, but midfield work, like drinkwater got swamped too often.

Albrighton, released the pressure, covered thankfully Fuchs marvellously.

Fuchs, lost it 3-4 times, timing off thanfully wasnt punished, but last 20 mins like all ....excellent.

Vardy, nothing much he can do in such games.Still had them worried.

Okazaki..methinks hes carrying a knock he was only trotting around non aggressive actions.

king, his covering pushed Griezmann out of the game, helped Ndidi to cover a touch better.

kingys  part underrated by some.

Team going forward...

#some want Simpson to attack more, if he had played 'his' game' then  no penalty!!

# AM had us covered, but before Penalty still looked uncomfortable especially when Mahrez/Albrighton was on the front foot

   Different game at KP, but in another way even more difficult....

Huth out. Problem...

a non chasing down Okazaki...problem

Drinkwaters form...problem.

No gungho at KP AM, would relish it. But we still need to be more on the frontfoot than today

If no Shinji, would fancy Leo.

Once again...big hand for Benny...beggars the question where the fk was he before xmas. Ranieri not so clever!!

[SystonFox]

I foresee a 2-0 victory next Tuesday. Morgan and Albrighton with the goals 

[DJ Barry Hammond]

1 minute ago, jayfox26 said:

I agree, they didn't create much but they are so well organised defensively, it will take something special for us to break them down. I still think we can get a result though  

 

I'm hoping their own natural mentality could end up counting against them in the second leg and they end up inviting us onto them, giving us a chance we wouldn't possibly have if they attack us.

 

If it's 0-0 after 60 minutes, i' sure they'll start reversing the bus which could potentially be our best chance of getting through. I think we will need to be very patient and keep in mind that we may need to take the tie it into extra time in order to win. 

 

 

 

 

[danfox76]

26 minutes ago, Nod.E said:

Showing a real lack of understanding for the game of football and the gulf in class here fella. Great result that. If we play our pressing game away to Madrid, we commit men into challenges, get caught out and get thumped in the process.

Wasn't pretty to watch but that was good game management and appreciation of the tie from the team and staff.

but isn't that exactly what we're gonna have to do at home? playing like we just did won't win a game home or away.