Dull football is only truly dull when it fails. A goalless draw away from home to the best team in La Liga isn’t truly dull.
Would Chelsea win La Liga? No. Then are Atletico Madrid a better team than Chelsea right now? Yes.
So do Chelsea have any realistic hope of coming to the Vicente Calderon stadium and playing Atletico Madrid off the park with attacking, cavalier football? No.
So do they have to find a way to get them back to Stamford Bridge and win there? Yes. And that is exactly what they did.
That Jose Mourinho got this draw without his best player, Eden Hazard, his main striker, Samuel Eto’o, his goalkeeper Petr Cech for 72 minutes and his captain John Terry for the final 20 makes it even more of an achievement.
Chelsea are familiar with triumph in adversity in this competition and although this was only a draw it still felt like victory, of sorts.
Chelsea clung on, particularly in the second half. It came at a cost, but then performances like this always do.
Frank Lampard picked up a booking for a foul on Turkish winger Arda Turan and will miss the return leg. Soon after, when he tried to control the ball with his upper torso and got too much of his upper arm on it, Atletico’s players surrounded Jonas Eriksson, the referee, in a crass attempt to get him dismissed.
Eriksson rightly resisted but punished the most aggressive offenders in the melee, John Mikel Obi and Gabi of Atletico.
Both are now suspended from the second leg also, although Gabi, as Atletico’s captain, is the greater loss.
The match ended goaless and there is everything to play for in the return leg
