Skip to main content

Oblak's penalty heroics, Griezmann's Barcelona brace - Atletico Madrid's route to the Champions League final

Atletico Madrid have once again confounded expectations both at home and abroad this season.

Diego Simeone's side pushed Barcelona and Real Madrid all the way in the race for the Liga title, and face a second all-Madrid Champions League final in the space of three seasons at San Siro on Saturday.

Real came out on top after extra-time in Lisbon in 2014, as well as last year's quarter-finals, but Simeone feels this final is "50-50".

 

Atletico started their Group C campaign with a 2-0 win at Galatasaray courtesy of a first-half double from Antoine Griezmann, but Benfica sprang a surprise by beating them 2-1 at the Vicente Calderon on matchday two.

Simeone's team then hammered Astana 4-0 at home before being held to a dour 0-0 draw in the reverse fixture in Kazakhstan.

 

Jurgen Locadia almost snatched victory for PSV when he hit the post, but the tie went to penalties after 210 scoreless minutes.

Luciano Narsingh missed after 14 successful spot-kicks, and Juanfran stepped up to send Atletico into the quarter-finals.

 

Luis Suarez made Barca's pressure pay with a second-half double to give the defending champions a narrow lead heading into the second leg.

But Griezmann made the difference at the Calderon, as he opened the scoring with an excellent header before the break and then converted a penalty late on to book Atleti's semi-final berth.

 

A moment of magic from Saul, and typical defensive resilience, gave Atleti a 1-0 home win in the first leg.

Bayern looked unstoppable in the first half of the return at the Allianz Arena, though, with the German champions' performance leading Simeone to praise them as the best team he has ever faced as a manager.

Xabi Alonso drew Bayern level with a deflected free-kick just after the half-hour mark, but the rampant hosts were denied a quickfire second when Jan Oblak saved Thomas Muller's penalty.

A sensational Atletico counter-attack early in the second half ended with Griezmann coolly beating Manuel Neuer - leaving Bayern needing two more goals to advance.

Robert Lewandowski's header 16 minutes from time made it a tense ending for Atletico - who also saw Torres spurn the chance to wrap the tie up when he missed a late penalty - but they held on to book a Madrid derby in Milan.