Leicester City vs. Atlético Madrid: Final score 1-1, Foxes can’t complete Champions League comeback

It was a match that ended up being as intense and dramatic as it promised to be, with Leicester City doing everything they could to create a miracle comeback against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals. They came close, but their efforts were too little, too late, as a first-half Saúl Ñíguez goal was enough for Atléti to seal a 1-1 draw in this match and a 2-1 aggregate win to punch their ticket to the semifinals.

Leicester City had the majority of possession for the vast majority of the match, but throughout the first half they struggled to do anything productive with it. Atlético had a great set up defensively that was forcing Leicester to consistently take the less-ideal option in a given situation, and Atlético were able to thrive on the counter attack.

One of those counters turned to gold for the Spaniards in the 26th minute, with Saúl getting on the end of a Filipe Luis cross and sending in an absolutely thumping header that Kasper Schmeicel could do nothing about. Atlético had suckered Leicester in a bit while building up the play and caught them ball watching as a result, and that goal served as an exclamation on a magnificently played first half by the visitors.

The second half was a very different story, though, with Atlético looking unsettled early in the half thanks to what looked like a potential injury to their right back, Juanfran. He left the match just 10 minutes into the half after struggling badly in the opening minutes, and that created an opportunity for Leicester to attack a reshuffled defense before they had a chance to settle in — an opportunity they took full advantage of with a shift to direct play and a series of set pieces, with Jamie Vardy eventually finding a hair’s breadth of an opening to hammer the ball through and equalize the scoreline in the match.

Leicester still trailed on aggregate, though, and especially with Atlético holding an away goal they had to press hard for two more goals to win. Despite several near-misses and blocked shots, those goals never came, with Atlético holding out strong and dampening any hopes the Foxes had of pulling out a miracle. The Foxes should be proud of their effort, but in the end the defensive quality and tactical acumen of Atlético Madrid was simply too much for them to handle, and Diego Simeone once again has his team very deservedly in the Champions League semifinal.

Leicester City: Kasper Schmeichel; Christian Fuchs, Yohan Benalouane (Ben Chillwell 46’), Wes Morgan (Daniel Amartey 84’), Danny Simpson; Marc Albrighton, Danny Drinkwater, Wilfred Ndidi, Riyad Mahrez; Shinji Okazaki (Leonardo Ulloa 46’); Jamie Vardy

Goals: Vardy (60’)

Atlético Madrid: Jan Oblak; Filipe Luis (Angel Correa 74’), Diego Godin, Stefan Savic, Juanfran (Lucas Hernandez 56’); Koke, Jose Gimenez, Gabi, Saúl Ñíguez; Antoine Griezmann, Yannick Carrasco (Fernando Torres 69’)

Goals: Ñíguez (26’)

Leicester City were hoping for a dramatic comeback win, to be the fallen heroes risen again to find new glory. Their fans were hoping for it. Heck, a lot of neutral fans were, too. It’s easy to see why; it’s a fun and inspiring story, and what else are we fans of sports for than to see fun and inspiring stories play out in front of us?

Atlético Madrid didn’t care.

They set themselves up to frustrate Leicester as much as possible, letting the hosts have possession, but forcing them to have that possession in less-than-ideal areas of the pitch and without the ability to regularly create danger with that possession. Then, using their lightning-fast counter attacks led by well-drilled and very creative players, they were able to create a goal from almost nothing, sucking Leicester into a false sense of security and punching them in the face with Saúl’s opening goal.

That strike, just 26 minutes into the match, was a gut shot to everyone pulling for Leicester. It took the match from a place of a win being attainable for Leicester to being a near-impossibility — the 2-0 aggregate score coupled with Atlético having an away goal meant that Leicester had to score three times without conceding to win, something that seemed at best to be a monumental task, if not a practically impossible one.

The dream was dead, and Atlético Madrid just shrugged and moved on.

With Atlético Madrid putting a stranglehold on the middle of the pitch, Leicester needed a creative presence in their team to break their opponents down. In the past, we’ve seen Riyad Mahrez take those reigns, but with Atléti willing to let Leicester play on the wings and not give them options for crosses or to cut in, that proved woefully ineffective.

Simply put, Leicester lacked any sort of central creative presence to try and change the game for them, and it wasn’t just because of how doggedly Atlético were playing in midfield. The Foxes didn’t have the personnel to break their opponents down in the middle of the pitch, and even though they had success going route-one with the long ball in the second half and forcing set pieces, having that creative presence would have given them more consistency and more opportunities throughout the match and would have let them play with a degree of confidence instead of sheer desperation.

In the second half, Atléti right back Juanfran seemed to break down a bit and started to struggle to deal with the pace of Mahrez and Ben Chillwell on the wing, after a half of confident and assured play from the veteran Spaniard in the first half. That apparent injury forced big changes into Atlético’s defense, and that finally gave Leicester the opening they needed.

Juanfran would normally have been replaced by the very capable Sime Vrsaljko, but the Croatian was absent from the bench thanks to a knee injury that he’s been dealing with. That meant that Diego Simeone had to bring on Lucas Hernandez, a little-used defender, and put him at center back while normal defensive rotation player Jose Gimenez was doing work in midfield. That in turn meant that Stefan Savic had to slide out wide to right back, a position that he’s played in the past but never at a great level of proficiency.

Those changes left Atlético’s defense badly unbalanced for a spell, and it was little surprise to see Leicester start to find attacking success for the first time in the match, attacking down Atléti’s right side with direct play that Savic struggled badly to deal with, then attacking the not-yet-settled Hernandez with pressure from both Jamie Vardy and Leonardo Ulloa. It was hardly shocking to see Vardy score just a few minutes later, and Leicester nearly scored two more times in the next few minutes, only to be stonewalled by a couple of key blocks.