A piece of Memphis Depay magic and a string of shootout saves from Jan Oblak has delivered Atletico Madrid a famous Champions League victory over one of the competition favourites, Internazionale in a thrilling match in Madrid.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg and then a further goal down on the night, Diego Simeone’s men rallied and forced extra time thanks to a late Depay strike, then relied on their keeper to do the rest.
In the shootout, Chilean legend Alexis Sanchez had his saved by Oblak, only for Inter’s keeper Yann Sommer to save right back from Saul Niguez.
Undeterred, Oblak got straight back up and saved again, this time from Davy Klaassen and in the decisive moment, he wasn’t needed at all: Lautaro Martinez, so often the star for Inter, sent his high and wide to send the Spanish side through.
“The scenes inside this stadium are absolutely phenomenal,” said former England keeper Paul Robinson on the BBC.
“That is not like Martinez. It looked like he slipped. But these fans won’t care.”
It was all the more astounding because Oblak, despite being one of the best goalies in Europe over the last decade, had a previously terrible record against spot kicks, as revealed by Craig Foster on the Stan Sports coverage.
“Jan Oblak has saved 15 in his career and not saved 49,” said Foz.
“But, in penalty shootouts, he’s only saved two from 32 penalties. He’s saved as many in this shootout as he has in any shootout in his career.”
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This had been touted as one of the ties of the round, with the all-conquering Italians facing one of the continent’s canniest teams, who love nothing more than skewering much-vaunted guests on their own turf.
That home advantage was to the fore at the Metropolitano in Madrid, which was bouncing from minute one and fully raucous by the end of normal time following Depay’s dramatic strike to take the game to extra time.
Prior to that, things had been very nervy indeed.
Inter should have wrapped the tie up in the first leg, where they squandered several huge chances, and might have thought that they had it in the bag when Federico Dimarco opened the scoring in the 33rd minute.
Quick as a flash, however, Atleti were back. It was a little scrappy, with a bouncing ball in the box eventually falling to Griezmann, but when the moment came the French superstar was never going to miss.
The next hour could have seen further scoring, with Inter always dangerous on the break and the Madrid side forced to make the bulk of the play.
By the end, it was a bearpit in the stadium as Inter fell deeper and deeper, and after all the pressure, all it took was an incisive pass from Koke and an instinctive finish across Yann Sommer to send the Metropolitano wild and the match into a third stanza.
Riquelme should have won it in the dying stages of normal time after a superb set up from Greizmann, only to blaze over when it looked easier to score.
Thursam sent a header over at one end, Sommer denied Depay at the other and Lautaro Martinez nodded a corner wide when he would have been heavily favoured to score.
Penalties beckoned, and Oblak did the rest.
“It’s a tremendous result against arguably the best team in Europe right now,” said Mark Bosnich on the Stan wrap-up show.
“Inter will be really kicking themselves that, number one, they conceded so early after taking the lead and number two, in that second half, that they didn’t convert at least one of those three breakaways.
“It would be too harsh to sat they underestimated Atletico Madrid, but especially after they scored the first, they should have went and been positive to kill them off. I think they thought ‘this is enough, they’re not going to score’.”
In the other game, Dortmund progressed to the last eight thanks to two goals at either end of the game.
Jadon Sancho snuck in a shot from range after just three minutes to put the Germans ahead in the tie, but PSV never went away and could well have sent the game into extra time late on, only for Luuk de Jong to fire over from a presentable chance in injury time.
That looked like that, but BVB were able to put gloss on the scoreline after a slip in the Dutch defence gave Marco Reus the easiest of chances. He made no mistake.
“It was like a relief,” said prodigal son Sancho, who is back on loan at Dortmund after leaving to join Manchester United.
“I just wanted to have a good start to the game and there’s no better feeling than that.
“I’m grateful I got the goal for the team. I’ve always got a special place for Borussia Dortmund: this is where I made my name. I’ve got to be grateful to them and my team-mates for believing in me.”
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