Victory on Champions League return
Champions League football returned to the Vicente Calderon Stadium as Atletico Madrid kicked off their 2013/14 campaign at home against Russian side Zenit St Petersburg. The scene was set for a big night of football in Europe’s elite club competition.
The opening 10 minutes of the game saw both side with shooting opportunities and it was Atleti who were the first to strike. With just 3 minutes on the clock, Turkish midfielder Arda Turan picked up the ball on the left wing and drifted in to a more central position before letting go with a right footed shot. The shot was on target but was saved comfortably by Yuri Lodygin in the Zenit goal.
The visitors were quick to reply with a shot of their own, Brazilian forward Hulk unleashed a left footed effort but fortunately for Courtois, the shot flew high & wide of the Atleti goal. Atletico Madrid’s Spanish international forward David Villa soon tried his luck with a couple of shot of his own as he looked to find his range. Both shots were easily saved by the Russian keeper.
It became apparent inside the first 25 minutes that Zenit were going o be a difficult team to break down. A well organised defensive block was limiting the home side to shots from outside the area until in the 27th minute, great pressing from Gabi allowed him to rob the ball and play it in to the path of Koke who had burst in to the area. The Spanish midfielder had half a yard of space before the Russian defenders closed him down, he managed to prod the ball in the direction of the goal but his effort was just off target and the deadlock remained.
Shortly after the half hour mark, Brazilian left back Filipe Luis found himself in and advanced position and with space to shoot, his left foot drive had the keeper looking worried but fortunately for the Russian it went just wide of the goal. Alteico with the majority of the chances but hadn’t found the breakthrough until a corner was awarded in the 40th minute. Set piece specialist Koke swung in the corner to the near post where Brazilian defender Miranda rose above the Zenit defence to head home at the front post to make it 1-0 giving the home side a valuable lead going in to the break,
A lead that could have been double in the 44th minute when Koke looked to curl the ball in to the top corner, his shot beat an outstretched Lodygin but sailed inches wide of the upright. Another opportunity came before the break when a free kick from Koke was met by Godin who got up between the blue shirts of Zenit but his header went just over the bar.
The sides came out for the second half and The Atletico 11 remained unchanged but the Russian side made a change, Oleg Shantov came on to replace Luis Neto as the Italian coach Luciano Spalletti looked to find a way back in to the game. They were certainly beginning to make their presence felt and leave their mark on the side from Madrid as Lombaerts in the 50th minute and then Smolnikov in the 54th had their names taken from the Scottish referee for bad tackles.
The change seemed to be working as in the 57th minute Kerzhakov looked to have equalised as his header was sailing in to the bottom corner, but a great save from Courtois at full stretch kept him out.
The Russians were only kept out temporarily as just one minute later in the 58th Hulk played a lovely one two with Kerzhakov and the Brazilian blazed an unstpable drive past the Belgian keeper and in to the back of the Atletico net to level things up. Zenit almost took the lead just 4 minutes later as a free kick from the goal scorer hulk beat the Atleti wall and Courtois in goal and rattled the cross bar.
The spell of dominance for the visitor did not shake Simeone’s side, it spurred them on and in the 64th minute the rojiblanco’s regained their lead thanks to persistence from Arda Turan. The Zenit defence had already blocked 3 attempts from Atleti but after Lombaerts looked to clear the ball for a final time, the Turkish midfielder quickly closed him down and deflected the clearance in to the back of the Zenit net to make it 2-1.
It was Atleti who looked more likely to get the next goal, leading to the Italian coach making more changes as he looked for an equaliser. In came Arshavin for Zyryanov. Simeone made his first change with just over 10 minutes left to play, bringing on Leo Baptistao for Adrian and just moments after coming on the Brazilian forward made it 3-1 to Simeone’s men finishing with class in a 1 on 1 with Yuri Lodygin.
In the dying stages of the game Simeone made 2 more changes bringing on Raul Garcia for Adra Turan and Cristian Rodriguez for Koke who received a standing ovation from the Calderon crowd in recognition for the young midfielders fine display.
A winning start for Diego Simeone’s men picking up an important 3 points ahead of the second round game away in Porto on Tuesday 1st of October. Thoughts will quickly move to the league game on Saturday away against Real Valladolid for a 10pm kick off.
