Deep defense Atlético
This confrontation promised to be tense and extremely curious from the point of view of tactics, and one of the main intrigues was in which scheme Atletico would prefer to play.
If Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel never left a formation with three central defenders, then Madrid, in the course of an unsuccessful meeting with Levante, changed to a formation with two players in the center of defense.
It could be assumed that the absence of Jose Maria Jimenez and Kieran Trippier would force Diego Simeone to turn to a more classic version again, but the coach did differently.
In the middle were Mario Hermoso, Felipe and Stefan Savic, while Tom Lemar and Marcos Llorente took over the lateral roles.
In addition to tactics, psychology also played an important role.
By UEFA's decision, the meeting was postponed from Madrid to Bucharest, which effectively deprived Atletico of the advantage of their own field.
Whether this was the reason for such an unsuccessful performance or not is not clear, but at the National stadium Simeone's charges looked extremely unintelligible.
For all 90 minutes, the nominal owners never disturbed Edouard Mendy and allowed him to become the Champions League leader in terms of the number of clean sheets (five).
True, the Senegalese in the opening almost brought a goal into his own net after a pass back from Cesar Azpilicueta.
With the exception of a counterattack with the participation of Luis Suarez that ended in a dangerous cross, Atletico practically did not create dangerous moments, having spent almost the entire meeting in close defense.
Until the 69th minute, Madrid owned the ball only 30% of the time and practically did not try to regain the initiative.
They were revived only by Olivier Giroud's goal, issued after a blow through himself.
At first, the goal was controversial, because the Frenchman was in an offside position.
But after numerous views of the episode, it became clear that the forward received a "pass" not from his teammate, but from defender Mario Hermoso.
As a result, the chief referee Felix Brykh pointed to the center.
Atletico played the ending in a more attacking style.
Within two minutes, Moussa Dembele and Lucas Torreira, rented from Lyon and Arsenal, as well as Renan Lodi and Vitolo appeared on the field, as a result of which the nominal owners changed to a 4-4-2 formation, but the statistics of shots on goal did not change.
Chelsea won away, and only yellow cards of Mason Mount and Jorginho became a fly in the ointment for the guests, because of which both will not be able to enter the field in the return leg.
Thomas Tuchel is also worth mentioning.
The German not only secured a sixth victory in his first eight games at the helm of Chelsea with a total score of 10: 2, but also became only the third coach in history to make his debut at the helm of the Blues in the Champions League knockout stage.
Previously, Roberto di Matteo and Guus Hiddink did this.
Bavaria dominance
On paper, the current Champions League winner was considered the clear favorite against Lazio, if not for one “but”.
Due to various injuries, Hans-Dieter Flick could not count on six performers, half of whom can be safely called representatives of the base.
The absence of Benjamin Pavard, Serge Gnabry and Thomas Müller made the mentor go for a serious reshuffle.
So, Jamal Musiala appeared in the midfield, and Niklas Züle appeared on the right edge of the defense.
Zyule looked pretty confident on the edge and regularly joined the attacks, and Musiala even lit his own name on the scoreboard.
On the 24th minute, he struck the gate of Pepe Reina with a spectacular long-range shot and made himself a gift for his 18th birthday, which he will celebrate three days after the game.
Among other things, the Englishman became one of the youngest footballers ever to excel in the Champions League playoffs.
According to this indicator, he lost only to the ex-striker of Barcelona Boyan Krkich, who upset Schalke at the age of 17 years 217 days.
True, Musiala's goal did not become the first in the match.
15 minutes before that, the best football player of the 2019/20 season according to UEFA said his weighty word.
Mateo Musacchio made a gross mistake and actually brought Robert Lewandowski one on one with his own goalkeeper.
Lewandowski scored his 72nd goal in the Champions League, pushing him past Real Madrid legend Raul to become the third top scorer in the tournament.
Only Lionel Messi (119) and Cristiano Ronaldo (134) have more goals.
The owners' coach Simone Inzaghi tried to rebuild the team's play and turned to substitutions.
Instead of Musacchio, who continued to make mistakes, left midfielder Senad Lulich appeared on the field, as a result of which the Romans switched to a system with two central defenders.
True, it didn't help.
First, Kingsley Coman completed the solo breakthrough with a powerful blow, and Leroy Zane played on the finishing move, and then the German himself organized another goal.
The transfer was intended for Alfonso Davis, but Francesco Acerbi did not allow the Canadian to excel and he cut the ball into the net.
Having taken the lead with a difference of four goals, “Bavaria” slowed down and switched to energy saving mode, for which they paid. In the remaining time Lazio was quite dangerous on counterattacks, inflicted two and a half times more shots on goal (10: 4) and even got one goal off. Joaquin Correa single-handedly broke through the opponent's defensive ranks and dealt with Manuel Neuer. But the class of Munich turned out to be more than enough to keep the winning score and practically remove all questions about a ticket to the quarterfinals.