After 75 minutes Chelsea goalkeeping loanee, Thibaut Courtois was cruising to a 1-0 win over Zenit St. Petersburg on Tuesday night with his Atletico Madrid team, in round 5 of the Champions League group phase. A loss for the Russian side would have meant elimination from potentially making it through to the knockout phase of this season’s Champions League.

The in-form Spanish outfit were looking good for the win until a costly gaffe by Chelsea’s Belgian goalkeeper. Courtois went to tip a fairly harmless looking deflected cross by Zenit’s Toby Alderweireld over his bar, but he actually succeeded in gently tipping the ball into the top corner of his goal – equalizing for Zenit in the process – and keeping the Russian team still in with a chance of finishing 2nd in Group G.

Thanks to last night’s results where Porto tied 1-1 with FK Austria Wien, and Zenit and Atletico played out their game to a 1-1 tie too, both Porto and Zenit still have a chance to finish 2nd in Group G. Fortunately for Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois, his Atletico Madrid team have already qualified for the knockout round of the Champions League so his rare mistake, even though it was a genuine “clanger”, has not proved to be very costly. It is ironic that young Thibaut should make the headlines for making an error when as we reported it was only a few days ago that Jose Mourinho, as quoted by the Daily Mail, was showering him with praise, saying, “…we have the best goalkeeper in the world at a stable age…”

Courtois has made so few mistakes during his spell in the Spanish capital that surely he will be forgiven and will retain his place in the side. What do you think?