Chelsea vs Atletico Madrid: Blues out to top Champions League group

Chelsea host Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night in a match up that both sides need to win for very different reasons. Chelsea, who earned the best WhoScored rating (7.15) of Premier League teams in November, are looking to secure a victory that would see them top Group C. On account of their inferior head-to-head record compared to Roma, anything less than a win would likely see them finish runners’ up in their group. 

Roma face off against Qarabag and are expected to secure victory at their Azerbaijani counperparts' expense, which in turn does not bode well for Atletico. The La Liga side sit two points behind Roma following draws with Qarabag and are on the cusp of a Champions League exit. 

The worst case scenario is to finish third in their group, and with it drop into the Europa League, though a team of Atletico’s standing will strive to continue in Europe’s elite competition. Here, we take a closer look at the Champions League encounter at Stamford Bridge, as we preview the encounter between two teams that have more in common than some may come to expect. 

There are plenty of key battles on hand in Tuesday’s encounter. Thibaut Courtois, who spent three years on loan with Atletico, will look to prove his goalkeeping worth against equal Jan Oblak, who was brought in to replace the Belgium number one. Filipe Luis will hope to prove that his former employers were too quick to cash in on him after just a year in west London. 

However, the hotly anticipated head-to-head comes in Eden Hazard vs Antoine Griezmann. Hazard has been in absolutely sensational form for Chelsea of late, winning the WhoScored man of the match award in six of his last nine competitive starts and comes into this tie on the back of a stellar display in the 3-1 win over Newcastle, where he bagged a brace. 

Griezmann, meanwhile, recently brought to an end an eight-game goal drought and has since scored four goals and registered a further two assists in his last three outings, winning the WhoScored man of the match award in two of those three matches. He netted from the spot in the reverse fixture and hopes to put the Blues defence to the sword with another strong outing.