Champions League: Chelsea secure famous victory at Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid 1 Chelsea 2

A last-gasp winner from Michy Batshuayi secured Chelsea a famous victory against Atletico Madrid as the Blues maintained their 100% start in the Champions League.

The Belgian popped up on 94 minutes to poke the ball home from Marcos Alonso’s cross with the last kick of the game, a goal he later celebrated on social media with a tongue-in-cheek tweet in which he described himself as “Batsman”.

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It was only the second time that Atletico have lost under Diego Simeone in 24 Champions League home matches, and to achieve their feat the visitors had to show real grit to come from behind.

With new signing Diego Costa watching from the sidelines, Atletico took the lead five minutes before half-time after David Luiz had conceded a penalty with some reckless defending, impeding Lucas Hernandez at a corner.

Antoine Griezmann made no mistake from the spot kick and the hosts took an undeserved lead into the break.

Chelsea had been the dominant team in the first-half but it took them until the hour mark to finally find the net. The impressive Eden Hazard – who had hit the post before the break – picked out Alvaro Morata with a clever cross from the left and the Spaniard turned the ball into the net.

Morata could have scored again, and Cesc Fabregas also came close to grabbing a second goal for Chelsea, but in the end it was Batshuayi who secured the first away win for an English side against Atletico.

The win not only ended the Spanish side’s 11-game unbeaten run at home in Europe, but more importantly it consolidated Chelsea’s position at the top of Group C.

They now have six points, two more than Roma, who won away at FK Qarabag, and five more than third-placed Atletico, who, it should be remembered, have appeared in two of the last four Champions League finals.

“It’s very difficult when Atletico Madrid score to come back, but despite this we did well to win,” said Chelsea manager Antonio Conte.

“We played with good personality and we kept our head on the pitch at all times. Against a difficult team like Atletico Madrid this is a good win – now it’s important to rest and recover because we don’t have much time before the game on Saturday against Manchester City.”

Asked to assess Batshuayi’s contribution from the bench, Conte stressed the youngster was still very much a work in progress: “He struggled a lot to understand the league last year, but he’s improving. His commitment is very good during the training sessions. He has a lot of room for improvement and has to continue to work in this way.”

Conte also spoke in similar terms about the team overall, saying that the club is “starting to build something important”.

He added: “I think we have to go game by game and, above all, to keep the right humility. This humility last season brought us to win the league despite other teams being stronger than us. I think this season we have to keep the same humility.”

Last night’s Champions League results

Group A

• FC Basel 5 Benfica 0
• CSKA Moscow 1 Manchester United 4

Group B

• Paris Saint Germain 3 Bayern Munich 0
• RSC Anderlecht 0 Celtic 3

Group C

• FK Qarabag 1 Roma 2
• Atletico Madrid 1 Chelsea 2

Group D

• Juventus 2 Olympiakos 0
• Sporting Lisbon 0 Barcelona 1