Match Day Thread Atletico Madrid v Leicester

Benny was man of the match. Mahrez had no options whenever he got the ball so was forced to take them on every time ...nearly worked once. Albrighton great effort but rather a headless chicken. ...wasn't a pen but stupid challenge...just run him to the byline. Worst performance on the night by some distance was Drinky... but we are still in it and hopefully we'll be at them like we did against Man City, Liverpool and Sevilla ...

 

Defence was immense and got far greater cover from midfield and the full backs than on Sunday. Huth will be a big miss next Tuesday. Drinky covered an absurd amount of ground last night and made vital challenges again and did his main job which was always going to be damage limitation. Going forward his one touch balls to Vardy were too hurried and missed the target. Albrighton also got through lots of running and good covering work, but a shame he spoiled it with that ridiculous challenge, even though it was outside the box.

There is a gulf in quality between the teams and they know how to con the European refs, so we have to be realistic in what we expected from an away tie, but most of us would have taken a single goal deficit going into the return leg. Next week the atmosphere will be different and we know we have to score. Maybe the home crowd will pressure the ref more towards us, not that I'd want to win by a dubious/incorrect decision (actually, thinking about it, that would be better than going out of the competition). Gray will probably get the chance to run at their defence more and cause them different problems. The contest is most definitely not over yet.

 

It's a strange one. Yes they were dominant in terms of possession and territorial advantage and barely gave us a sniff in defence. However I felt they were average at best and didn't even test Schmeichel. The stats show 3 shots on target which is poor and from memory they all trickled into Kasper's arms. They had the shot against the post (which I think he had covered) but hardly peppered our goal. Sevilla looked a much better side in the away leg and I'd put the one goal lead then down to not finishing chances. That can't be said about Athletico. They were average (at least last night) and had a lack of ambition.
Honestly though I don't think we'll go through. They know what they're doing and I can't see us getting much of the ball or much of a chance attacking next week either. If we do they will counter attack as per the pen last night. They really are like us but just better

 

The ref was absolutely awful, not just for the penalty, but all the little decisions - The one that sticks out was after a ball down the line, Savic seeing it out, Vardy behind him... Savic kicked it out, then just fell over, and got a free kick

I guess that's European football and referees for you though...

What most annoyed me, was that not only Griezmann called for a yellow card after he was fouled, but Simeone did it as well!! Embarrasing behaviour!
I thought asking for someone else to be booked, means you get booked? It should do, anyway!!

Still all to play for in the second leg...

 

Agree entirely re Savic, the ball was going for a goal kick so he didn't need to worry about losing the ball. A goal kick and free kick in that position is exactly the same in terms of advantage. Only one reason to go down them and that was to try and get Vardy booked. That was the one where greasy twat Simeone was waving his imaginary card as well I believe.
Also Griezeman. I think the ref was booking Huth anyway so there was no need

 

I think it should be a booking.

The only thing I can find is players can be booked for unsporting behavior (did this use to be ungentlemanly conduct?) This action IMHO should be covered by unsporting behavior. If this was introduced worldwide then that would stop this horrible conduct.

 

Still all to play for next week. It's frustrating the only differential in the scoreline is a contentious penalty. However, as they've been in the Champions League Final twice in the last 3 years and this is our first ever CL campaign, I'll take a 1-0 deficit.

Don't mind losing fair and square to a better quality opposition but do not want to be cheated out of a result and spend another 20 years moaning about Atletico Mk2

 

Simple , the only chance you have is Athletico not scoring the 2nd leg . Achieve that and your chances start to grow . Pretty dodgy penalty call too .

 

You mean 'pretty dodgy' as in 'plain wrong'?

 

Terrible call in a very important 1 goal game . I hate when refs are the most important person on the pitch , I've said elsewhere " You never notice a great ref "

 

As a Club this is something you need to sort out as all the good work done by the players and manager is being undone by a moronic element. When you came to Swansea last season there was an element clearly looking for trouble, which was surprising as you don't get it with most PL Clubs these days

 

Shakey has a tough job picking the team on Tuesday

Do you go for the tried and tested Okazaki which leaves space behind the midfield. And leaves Vardy isolated

Bring in Slimani to support Vardy but lose numbers in midfield

Bring in King and keep the midfield solid like we did in the second half

Or chance formation and bring in Gray and have Mahrez playing off Vardy


We have to be solid as we cant afford to give away an away goal but we also need to create chances. We cant win the game after 5 mins but we can lose it

 

It's a conundrum to say the least. We've got to stay solid to begin and try and gain the upper hand. After that introduce Slimani and Gray when appropriate to supply more of a goal threat if required. The players now need to realise that they can be a match for the Atletico team, before Wednesday they were aware of their reputations but had never come up against them, they know now they can compete at the King Power with a raucous backing, and need to believe they can pull it off.

 

TBH I've never seen trouble from genuine Leicester City fans. I put the issues in Madrid down to people who aren't genuine fans but took the opportunity to travel to cause trouble who we wouldn't obviously want associated with the club. The issue you mention above is an odd one though as you wouldn't expect people to travel without tickets...
I'm sure all clubs have a few moronic fans but I really don't think Leicester are particularly bad. I hope not anyway

 

Maybe start with the tried and tested with Okazaki and Vardy and play ourselves into the game rather than go all out from the first minute and risk conceding early. Shakey should also politely ask Drinky to take a little more care with the balls down the channels to Vardy. What we can't do is put balls up in the air to him or give it away by being too hurried, because they can hit us on the break. Bringing on Gray would certainly cause them a problem they didn't have to face in the first game, and then bring on Ulloa rather than Slimani if we need to go more direct.

 

Quoted about 6-8k travelled without tickets, end of the day if you don't have a ticket, then you aren't there for the football, you're just on holiday.

Can't excuse them but it sounds like a bunch of people who weren't used to the heavy handedness of international police, tbf the younger fans aren't used to travelling around europe to see us play.

 

I agree, I wouldn't read anything into Madrid. I've never known trouble from our fans in this country though so I'm not sure what to make of the comments from the Swans fan above....I didn't go to that game so no idea

 

Game on. Perfect time this part of the world with a 7.00am kick off. A little late getting to work but who cares. Even now hard to believe we are playing for a spot in the last 4 of the Champions League. It can be done..

 

No surprise to see that Adrian Durham hasn't got a clue.

I personally had no idea that Dortmund's bus had been subject to a 'bombing'. I would argue that that was the same for many of the fans so lets put the idea that we were laughing at it or whatever to bed. I wouldn't put two and two together after 10 pints either. I don't necessarily agree with the chant but it is pretty harmless. Same goes for "**** off you Spanish bastards, Gibraltar is ours". Two pretty moronic chants sung by 10/15 out of the 11,000 City fans in Madrid.

Also, we were TOLD to go to Plaza Mayor. It was supposed to be the hub for City fans, near to the hotel where we collected tickets. The Police rounded us up, formed a circle around us and told us to get on with it. They then sat there watching us drink and, rather than calming things down sooner (fault of Leicester fans) because there were plenty of songs getting rowdier and rowdier, they waited until everybody was properly ****ered and came steaming in with batons. Whacking everybody, and I mean everybody (children and women included), in sight.

I saw people running scared. I saw dads in tears as they'd lost their kids. I saw a mum crying because her son had a whacking great bruise on his back from the Police.


Blame the 10/15 that ruined it for everybody. Sick of people tarring us with the same brush as those idiots who probably didn't have tickets.

 

Big news is Morgan is straight back in the team.

Leicester

• 1 Schmeichel
• 17 Simpson
• 5 Morgan
• 29 Benalouane
• 28 Fuchs
• 26 Mahrez
• 25 Ndidi
• 4 Drinkwater
• 11 Albrighton
• 20 Okazaki
• 9 Vardy

Substitutes

• 3 Chilwell
• 7 Musa
• 10 King
• 13 Amartey
• 21 Zieler
• 22 Gray
• 23 Ulloa