With a fickle 1-0 lead in the first leg, Chelsea will welcome Atletico Madrid to Stamford Bridge tonight.
Olivier Giroud’s fantastic overhead sealed the win for Chelsea in the first league of the UCL last 16 tie in Madrid. Chelsea were not able to find back-to-back victories over Everton and Liverpool. And they also only managed a point against Leeds at the weekend.
However, it was Chelsea’s fifth clean sheet in a row, and their resolute defense has only conceeded twice since Tuchel took over. Also, Chelsea has never struggled to advance in Europe after winning the first leg away. Tuchel will hope to follow in the footsteps of nine of Chelsea’s last ten managers who won their first European game at home.
Atletico Madrid remains in first position in La Liga. However, Barcelona and Real Madrid are closing in on them and are waiting impatiently to take advantage of any more mistakes made by Atletico. Atletico Madrid, two-time runners-up in 2014 and 2016, have now struggled to advance beyond the quarter-final stage for four seasons in a row. They were eliminated in the last eight by RB Leipzig in the 2019-20 season.
Mason Mount and Jorginho won’t be available for the match as they were booked in the first leg. Tammy Abraham has been already ruled out and so is Thiago Silva. Meanwhile, there are no major injury concerns for Madrid giants.
Chelsea possible starting lineup: Mendy; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger; Hudson-Odoi, Kante, Kovacic, Alonso; Ziyech, Werner; Giroud
Atletico Madrid possible starting lineup: Oblak; Trippier, Gimenez, Savic, Lodi; Koke; Felix, Llorente, Saul, Correa; Suarez
