Atletico faces the risk of elimination, Chelsea wins narrowly.

Defending champions Atletico Madrid are in danger of being eliminated from the Europa League after losing 0-2 to Rubin Kazan at home. Meanwhile, Chelsea, former Champions League winners, struggled to beat Sparta Prague 1-0.

Besides having a more balanced squad than Rubin Kazan, the Spanish team also has a huge advantage in the first leg of the Europa League round of 32, playing at home at Vicente Calderon - where they have won every game since the beginning of the season in La Liga.

However, Atletico Madrid's seemingly impenetrable "fortress" was unexpectedly breached in the 6th minute when Gokdeniz Karadeniz opened the scoring for the Russian team. That goal was like a cold shower for coach Simeone's players.

Atletico faces the risk of elimination.

After conceding a goal, Atletico Madrid launched a strong offensive and created numerous scoring opportunities. They even gained a numerical advantage when Rubin Kazan were reduced to 10 men at the end of the first half.

Playing with a man advantage, the home team completely controlled the game but were unable to find the back of the net. Despite numerous attacks, Atletico failed to score and paid the price when Pablo Orbaiz scored the winning goal for Rubin Kazan.

Losing 0-2 at home is a huge disadvantage for Atletico Madrid. Simeone's team is now facing the risk of early elimination from the competition in which they are the reigning champions.

Along with Rubin Kazan, other Russian teams Zenit St. Petersburg and Anzhi Makhachkala also had very successful matches against Liverpool and Hannover.

Zenit fully capitalized on their home advantage to gain the upper hand in their clash with the historically rich Liverpool. After a goalless first half, Hulk and Sergei Semak needed only four minutes to completely crush Liverpool's resistance and secure a 2-0 victory for the home team.

Meanwhile, despite falling behind to Hannover after Szabolcs Huszti scored in the 22nd minute, veteran striker Samuel Eto'o quickly equalized for Anzhi about 10 minutes later. Three minutes into the second half, Odil Akhmedov put Anzhi ahead for the first time, and although Eto'o missed a subsequent penalty, Mbark Boussoufa still managed to seal a 3-1 victory for the home team ahead of the second leg.

While defending champions Atletico Madrid face the risk of elimination, former Champions League winners Chelsea struggled to secure a 1-0 victory against Czech side Sparta Prague.

In this match, Chelsea also showed wastefulness in their chances, launching numerous shots towards Sparta Prague's goal but only managing a single goal from Oscar in the 82nd minute. Of course, with a narrow 1-0 victory away from home, Chelsea have a significant advantage in progressing to the next round, but clearly, The Blues' performance was still unconvincing, especially in attack.

After the match, manager Rafa Benitez had to admit that Chelsea's attack was too wasteful of chances and urged his forwards to be more clinical: "Eighteen shots on goal isn't bad, but we clearly need to improve how we convert those chances into goals."

According to (Vietnam+) - DT