Atletico Madrid 1 vs 0 Leicester City
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Full-time: Atletico Madrid 1-0 Leicester
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90’+1′Koke plays an ambitious angled ball towards Juanfran who’s making a bursting run forward down the right, but he puts too much on the pass and it flies out for a Leicester goal kick. That could well be the last chance of the game for Atletico.
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88′Close!! Correa skips away from Simpson with some exceptional footwork inside the Leicester penalty box, but there’s no one in an Atletico shirt waiting in the middle and his low cross goes all the way through and out the other side of the box, from where Leicester can hack the ball clear but it’s only momentary rest bite as Atletico immediately regain possession.
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86′Fuchs brings down Thomas just inside his own half but once again Atletico chose not to send the ball towards the penalty box and instead take the free-kick short and maintain possession. Leicester though are remaining relatively well organised in defence.
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84′Atletico very nearly get their second goal as Juanfran gets in behind the Leicester defence inside the right-hand edge of the penalty box and looks to roll the ball across the six yard box towards an unmarked Griezmann at the back post, but Benalouane positions himself well on the edge of the six yard box and cuts out the cross.
84′
Atletico very nearly get their second goal as Juanfran gets in behind the Leicester defence inside the right-hand edge of the penalty box and looks to roll the ball across the six yard box towards an unmarked Griezmann at the back post, but Benalouane positions himself well on the edge of the six yard box and cuts out the cross.
82′
The referee has sent a member of the Leicester support staff to the stands after what appeared to be an altercation on the touchline with some of the Atletico coaches. It all seemed to come out of nowhere as the intensity of this game has just dropped in the last few minutes.
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80′Slimani controls a clever lofted ball from Simpson with his thigh and turns well 25 yards out from goal, but his second touch just lets him down and Savic is able to clear the danger, although in truth there wasn’t much on for the Leicester substitute who had very little support.
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79′Leicester’s 4-5-1 formation is making it extremely difficult for Atletico to find any way through the middle at the moment, but they are finding space in wide areas and Leicester are struggling to keep the ball for any length of time when they do win it back.
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77′SubstitutionJamie VardyIslam Slimani
Another change for Leicester too now as Vardy, who has worked hard as the lone striker, is replaced by Islam Slimani. -
75′SubstitutionFernando José Torres SanzThomas Teye Partey
Another change for Atletico now as Thomas Partey comes on in place of Torres. It looks as though Thomas will go straight into midfield and Correa will play alongside Griezmann up front.
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75′SubstitutionFernando José Torres SanzThomas Teye Partey
Substitution Fernando José Torres Sanz Thomas Teye Partey -
73′Leicester are essentially playing a 4-5-1 when Atletico have the ball with Vardy looking pretty isolated as the lone striker. Atletico though still find a way to work the ball out to Griezmann in space on the right-hand side, but the Frenchman’s low cross across the six yard box is just out of the reach of Correa in the middle.
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71′Atletico work the ball well down the right through Koke and Correa, but Ndidi sticks a foot in to knock the ball away from the latter and out for a corner which is once again headed away by Huth, who really has been outstanding in the air for Leicester tonight.
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69′Diego Simeone is looking pretty animated on the touchline at the minute and you sense he will want his side to score at least once more in this first leg. Craig Shakespeare meanwhile is looking relatively calmly on the edge of his technical area.
67′
Correa is involved immediately as he scampers towards the right-hand corner of the Leicester penalty box before slipping a neat through ball for Juanfran to chase, but Fuchs blocks the right-back’s cross before heading away the resultant corner at the back post.
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65′SubstitutionYannick Ferreira CarrascoÁngel Martín Correa
A first change for Atletico now as Angel Correa comes on in place of Carrasco, who hasn’t really been able to get into the game. -
63′Atletico have two free-kicks within quick succession of each other on opposite sides of the field, but Leicester deal with both of them with relative ease as Huth heads away the first before Ndidi scrambles away the second.
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61′Chance!! A chance for Torres to extend Atletico’s lead now as he receives the ball into his feet from Koke between the two Leicester centre-halves before shifting the ball out of his feet and into a position where he can get a shot away on goal from, but he slips as he’s about to shoot an ends up slicing the ball horribly wide.
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60′Huge appeals for a Leicester penalty as Mahrez cuts inside Juanfran with ease before running into Gabi and going to ground, but referee Eriksson is not interested and signals for the winger to get back to his feet, which doesn’t go down too well with Mahrez or the Leicester fans.
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58′Yellow Card Robert Huth
Griezmann knocks the ball past Huth and the centre-back pulls him back to prevent him getting away into space down the right. Huth is then shown a yellow card for the foul which rules him out of the second leg. -
56′Mahrez with his first sight of goal now as Gabi’s clearance from Simpson’s low first-time shot fails straight to the winger just inside the penalty box, but having got the ball out of his feet and onto his left foot, he is unable to get enough curve on the ball to bring it inside the post, and Oblak watches it sail comfortably wide in the end.
54′
Filipe Luis gets half a yard of space to cross on the left-hand side but he can only drill the ball into Simpson’s ankle and out for a corner, which is once again headed away by Huth who has been impressive in the air so far.
51′
Atletico have started this second half in a similar manner to which they played the majority of the first, but this time Benalouane times his tackle on Torres perfectly to divert the ball away from the striker as he looked to chase down Carrasco’s crips through ball.
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49′Yellow Card Yohan Benalouane
Torres surges forward and looks to play the ball into the path of Griezmann ahead of him, and although Huth intercepts the pass the referee pulls play back for a foul on Torres by Yohan Benalouane who is shown a yellow card for the challenge. -
48′Koke shows a lovely bit of skill to flick the ball into the path of Juanfran down the right-hand side but the full-back’s cross is blocked out for a corner, which is then well headed away by Huth.
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46′Kick-off! Atletico get the second half underway.
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46′SubstitutionShinji OkazakiAndy King
Leicester are making a change at the interval with Andy King coming on to replace Okazaki. -
Having dominated possession, Atletico may well feel that they should be more than just one goal up, and will certainly not want to take such a slender advantage back to the King Power Stadium for the second leg. Leicester meanwhile will be relatively happy with the way they’ve defended for the majority of the half, and will be hoping they can nick an away goal in the second half as they did in Sevilla in the last 16.
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Half-time: Atletico Madrid 1-0 Leicester
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44′Ndidi is penalised for a push on Saul close to the halfway line and Atletico could have one last chance before the interval, but instead they roll the ball sideways, quite intent on going into the break one goal up.
41′
Leicester have grown into this game as the half has progressed and have looked a threat going forward on a couple of occasion, but Atletico still look the more comfortable of the two sides as Griezmann is only prevented from being clean through on goal by crucial interception from Drinkwater.
39′
Albrighton looks to make up for conceding the penalty as he takes up possession of the ball 25 yards out and decides to go for goal despite having Okazaki ahead of him, but he drags his low shot comfortably wide of Oblak’s goal.
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37′Close! Koke once again has acres of space 30 yards out from goal and just as he did in the opening minutes he hits a well struck effort towards goal, but this time it flies wide of the right-hand post with Schmeichel sprawling across his goal. Craig Shakespeare may not be too happy with the way Ndidi just sat off Koke then though.
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36′Mahrez picks up possession just inside the Atletico half but loses possession almost immediately, which rather sums up the winger’s game so far as he’s barely been involved.
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34′Saul cushions the ball beautifully with his head to knock it past Fuchs on the right-hand touchline before surging into the box and looking to cut inside onto his favoured left foot, but Ndidi reads the move well and makes a good tackle just inside the penalty box.
32′
Carrasco drives towards Danny Simpson down the left-hand side and turns the right-back inside out before looking to pick out Griezmann who’s made a good run across the near post, but Albrighton tracks him superbly well and sticks a toe in to intercept the danger.
30′
Leicester look to hit back straight away as Fuchs launches a long throw into the Atletico penalty box and it skims off an Atletico head and goes wide of Oblak’s goal for a corner which is then cleared with ease.
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28′Penalty Goal Antoine Griezmann
Penalty Goal Antoine Griezmann -
27′Griezmann breaks away down the left-hand side and cuts infield towards the penalty box before being brought down by Albrighton, although the initial contact appeared to be outside the box!
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27′Yellow Card Marc Albrighton
Yellow card Marc Albrighton -
27′PENALTY TO ATLETICO!!
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25′Chance!! Leicester’s first chance of the game falls to Shinji Okazaki as Albrighton puts in a low cross from the left-hand side which evades Savic at the near post, but Okazaki just overruns the ball slightly and isn’t able to sort his feet out in time to control the ball six yards out from goal.
23′
Torres is flagged offside looking to get in behind the Leicester defence and Schmeichel takes the free-kick quickly hoping to catch the Atletico defence out by playing a long ball over the top for Vardy to chase, but the striker isn’t on the same wavelength as his goalkeeper and Jan Oblak is able to gather the ball in at the edge of his area.
21′
Albrighton wins a free-kick on the left-hand side with some clever footwork and Christian Fuchs eventually whips in a superb cross after taking the initial free-kick short to Danny Drinkwater, but Stefan Savic is well positioned at the near post and heads the ball away from danger.
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16′Leicester are almost playing with six at the back when Atletico have the ball with Marc Albrighton playing particularly deep on the left-hand side. Atletico still seem to be finding plenty of space in midfield though as Saul Niguez this time goes for goal from distance, but just as Griezmann did moments earlier, the Spaniard blasts the ball over the bar.
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14′Atletico threaten once again as Torres cuts inside onto his left foot on the right-hand edge of the box and goes for goal, but he doesn’t make a clean connection with the ball and it rolls through harmlessly to Schmeichel, who may well have a busy night ahead of him.
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12′For the first time in the game Antoine Griezmann finds himself in space 30 yards out from goal after a lovely turn to get away from Wilfred Ndidi, but his well-struck effort goes narrowly over the bar, although Schmeichel did look to have it covered.
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10′Leicester are really struggling to get into this game at the minute with Atletico looking extremely comfortable in possession, although both sides will be aware of the threat the visitors pose on the counter attack as Vardy has already shown.
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8′Chance!! A chance for Atletico as Robert Huth’s attempted clearing header from Filipe Luis’s cross flicks off the top of his head and falls straight to Yannick Carrasco at the back post, but the Belgian chooses to hit the ball first time and slices his volley into the side-netting from seven yards out.
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7′The home fans are really getting behind their side at the moment and making themselves heard, and it seems to be rubbing off on the players as Leicester are camped deep inside their own half with Atletico seeing much more of the ball.
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5′OFF THE POST!! Moments after Fernando Torres had forced Kasper Schmeichel into a comfortable low save from inside the box, Koke picks the ball up 25 yards out from goal and hits a ferocious drive which beats the Leicester keeper and cannons off the outside of the post.
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3′Atletico have made a positive start to this game but Leicester show the threat they possess on the counter attack as Jamie Vardy gets away down the left-hand edge of the penalty box, but he’s forced out wide and although he drills a low ball across the face of goal, there are no Leicester players up in support and Atletico are easily able to clear.
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1′Kick-off! Shinji Okazaki gets the game underway for Leicester.
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The two sets of players are making their way out onto the pitch, led by referee Jonas Eriksson. Kick-off is not far away now.
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The two clubs have met each other twice before in European competition, in the 1961/62 Cup Winners Cup and the 1997/98 UEFA Cup, with the Spanish side coming out on top across two legs on both occasions.
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Leicester meanwhile make five changes from the side that was beaten by Everton, with Danny Simpson, Christian Fuchs, Riyad Mahrez, Wilfred Ndidi and Shinji Okazaki all coming into the side. Daniel Amartey, Ben Chilwell, Andy King, Demarai Gray and Islam Slimani are the men who make way.
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Diego Simeone has named an unchanged side from that which started against Real Madrid, meaning Griezmann will have the opportunity to add to the four Champions League goals he’s scored already this season.
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Subs: Zieler, Chilwell, King, Amartey, Slimani, Gray, Ulloa
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Leicester (4-4-2): Schmeichel; Simpson, Benalouane, Huth, Fuchs; Mahrez, Ndidi, Drinkwater, Albrighton; Okazaki, Vardy
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Subs: Moreira, Lucas, Gimenez, Thomas, Cerci, Gaitan, Correa
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Teams: Atletico (4-4-2): Oblak; Juanfran, Savic, Godin, Filipe Luis; Carrasco, Gabi, Koke, Saul; Torres, Griezmann
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That run included a 2-0 home win over Sevilla in the last 16 second leg, a result which was enough to secure their place in the quarter-finals following a 2-1 defeat in the first leg, in what was Claudio Ranieri’s last game in charge.
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Leicester meanwhile come into the game on the back of a 4-2 defeat at Everton, a result that brought to an end an impressive run of six consecutive victories in all competitions since Craig Shakespeare took over as manager.
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Their domestic form since the 0-0 second leg draw with Leverkusen has been impressive too, with three consecutive wins followed by a 1-1 draw at Real Madrid, a game in which Antoine Griezmann scored a late equaliser for Diego Simeone’s side.
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Atletico reached this stage of the competition by finishing top of their group, above Bayern Munich, before beating Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 on aggregate in the last 16, with all six goals coming in the first leg.
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Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Champions League quarter-final first leg tie between Atletico Madrid and Leicester City at the Vicente Calderon.