Atletico Madrid draw at home to Qarabag and Champions league exit beckons
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E-mail Xinhua, November 1, 2017
Atletico Madrid virtually said "adios" to the Champions League on Tuesday night as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Qarabag following another disappointing performance.
The result leaves Atletico with just three points from four games and the result was made even worse by Roma's 3-0 win at home to Chelsea, which leaves them four points behind Chelsea and five behind Roma with just two games left to play.
Coming into the game on the back of questions raised about their confidence and effectiveness in front of goal, Atletico proceeded to give the doubters further ammunition with arguably one of their worst halves of football in several years.
The Spanish side looked slow, nervous and lacking in confidence and despite their control of the ball failed to create chances against a rival was hard-working and well organized.
The fans in the Wanda Metropolitano were stunned when Qarabag took the lead with five minutes remaining in the half thanks to Michel's header. It was yet another goal that the Spanish side have conceded following a cross into their penalty area this season.
Atletico were level 10 minutes after the break thanks to a powerful shot from Thomas Partey from outside of the penalty area. Thomas has arguably been Atletico's best player this season and it was a just reward for his efforts, even though he was replaced soon afterwards by Nicolas Gaitan in the 62nd minute.
That change came three minutes after Qarabag's Pablo Henrique was shown a direct red card for a high challenge on Atletico's Diego Godin.
Atletico spent most of the half pressuring the Qarabag penalty area, but were unable to turn their domination of the ball into goals and they too were reduced to 10 men in the 88th minute when Stefan Savic was shown his second yellow card of the night.
The closing minutes saw Atletico lay siege to the Qarabag goal, but the fact is that they failed to draw a save from visiting keeper Ibrahim Sehic and as a result they now need a miracle to continue in the competition.
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