Atletico Madrid 1 (2) – 0 (4) Real Madrid: Match review | OneFootball

Real Madrid secured a spot in the quarter-final of the UEFA Champions League, thanks to a win over Atletico Madrid in a penalty shootout following the conclusion of their second leg meeting in the round of 16 of the competition.

Los Blancos went to the Wanda Metropolitano with a 2-1 first leg lead from last week’s outing but Wednesday’s hosts needed less than half a minute to pull things level after a rapid start to proceedings saw Conor Gallagher poke home from close range to make it 2-2 on aggregate.

After Atletico took the lead, they failed to make their home advantage count and were happy to sit back deep in their own half as the visiting side dominated possession across both periods. Though Diego Simeone’s men had a few counter-attacks go their way, Madrid defended them well more often than not but failed to create any noteworthy opportunities of their own.

In the 70th minute, Madrid’s biggest chance of the match came as Kylian Mbappe was tumbled inside the box by Clement Lenglet after a quick break. Vinicius Junior could have made things level from the penalty spot on the night and put Real back in front on aggregate, but the pressure got the better of the Brazilian, who blazed his spot-kick high and horribly wrong.

Extra time followed and the half hour added on was also an even affair, although Madrid’s control on proceedings grew exponentially while an end-to-end couple of periods meant they had a lot more room to attack Atletico, although that also was to no avail.

A thrilling penalty shootout followed, which Kylian Mbappe opened coolly by stroking the ball past Jan Oblak and Atletico Madrid responded just as well through Alexander Sorloth. Once more, Madrid were in front through Jude Bellingham and up came Julian Alvarez for Atletico, whose penalty led to controversy.

Although the former Manchester City star found the back of the net, VAR overruled it due to him making contact with the ball twice, an incident of which Real Madrid took full advantage as Federico Valverde put them 3-1 up in the shootout. Atleti were not down and out just yet, however, as Angel Correa managed to get his shot past Thibaut Courtois, in spite of the Belgian getting a firm hand on the ball.

Lucas Vazquez had the chance to make it 4-2 to Madrid after Correa had scored for the hosts but a tame effort by the Spaniard was easily saved by Oblak. Marcos Llorente had the chance to make it 3-3 next but smashed his penalty onto the crossbar, leaving Antonio Rudiger with the chance to win the tie.

The German stepped up and put his penalty past Oblak to send Madrid into the last eight. It was the second season in a row that Rudiger had decided a European Cup tie for the Whites after his winning kick versus Manchester City in the quarter-final of the 2023/24 edition at the Etihad Stadium.

For much of the second leg, Real Madrid were put under tremendous pressure by Atletico Madrid but across the grand scheme of things, the 15-time Champions League winners deserved to go through and continue their defence of the trophy they won at Wembley Stadium in June last year.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men take on Villarreal next in La Liga, while their upcoming European opponents are Arsenal, who they face on April 8th and April 16th. The first leg will be away from home at the Emirates Stadium and will be a fixture that Aurelien Tchouameni misses after his yellow card this time around.