Defeat never tasted so good. At the end of a battle in which both teams had fought and both had bled, in which they had suffered, a huge banner was unfurled. “We give everything to win the cup,” it said, and, boy, had they.
For the first time, Diego Simeone had seen his team lose a Champions League knockout game at home, but it did not matter: instead there was delirium, the club’s anthem belted out louder than ever before. “You don’t know how lovely it is to be among the four best teams in Europe,” he said.
They had waited a long time for this. Ten years and one day later, Atlético Madrid eliminated Barcelona to reach the semi-final of the Champions League again. “This is the third time we’ve done this – against Messi’s Barcelona, against Lamine’s Barcelona – and it isn’t easy,” Simeone said. The other two times, in 2014 and 2016, they reached the final they are so desperate to return to and exorcise the ghosts from Lisbon and Milan. “I’ve been here 14 years and never stop feeling emotional. I told the players: thank you, thank you, thank you. For the things we do, the faith we have.”
Theyneeded it, Simeone saying there was a moment when his team might have folded, but they refused. Barcelona were 2-0 down from the first leg, but it took 24 minutes for them to bring the tie level, goals from Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres seeming to set up a historic comeback and they might have scored a third too.
The thing was, it took only seven more for Atlético to take it from them again, Ademola Lookman sweeping in Marcos Llorente’s pass. Seven minutes and so much more, even if it was Lookman that sent Atlético through, 3-2 on aggregate.
“How well [Barcelona] play,” Simeone said. They had fought too, fulfilling Lamine Yamal’s promise that “if we do get knocked out, it will be fighting to the end”. Down to 10 men for 10 minutes after Eric García became the second Barcelona defender to be sent off in this tie, they threw everything at this. In the 96th minute, Ronald Araújo, on as an emergency striker, might have taken it to extra time. His header went over, leaving him face-down on the turf.
It was over and what a night it had been. These were the days when real footballers turn up, Lamine Yamal had said, and so many did. They had been playing for 35 seconds when he dashed through and drew a superb save from Juan Musso and it took three minutes more for him to give Barcelona the lead, guiding under Musso after he and Dani Olmo had hunted down Clément Lenglet. The teenager had barely started a night of sublime touches and a superb pass then put Olmo in on eight minutes, only to be stopped by Musso.
Despite the first-leg score, Hansi Flick insisted what Barcelona needed was not a miracle, just a performance like this. On 24 minutes, it was level, Torres turning neatly on to Olmo’s clever ball and guiding high into the net. Lamine Yamal’s perfect delivery with the outside of his boot was then met by Fermín López’s diving header, which was saved brilliantly by Musso. The goalkeeper’s studs caught his face, leaving blood everywhere. It was not long before the Atlético defender Matteo Ruggeri suffered a similar fate, both men bandaged for the rest of the night.
Atlético responded by taking back the lead. Antoine Griezmann, who sees everything with clarity and plays with the calmness Simeone was desperately appealing for from the touchline, turned a fabulous first-time pass into the run of Llorente and when Llorente runs, no one can catch him. Racing free, he crossed for Lookman to score, the place erupting.
Still it went on. Torres thought he had levelled, but the video assistant referee ruled it out and Lamine Yamal somehow escaped four men to provide for Olmo to fire over. But Barcelona’s fuel was burning out and Atlético were ready to suffer. Nor did they just resist; they also took a step forward, to great effect.
Griezmann released Llorente to strike wide. Robin Le Normand was denied by Joan García. Almost as soon as he had come on Alexander Sørloth was sent dashing through and crashing down. It took a long time and a trip to the screen, but Clément Turpin was shown a red card, García heading up the tunnel alone, shirt thrown down.
Unable to wrap it up, Atlético had their nerves shred, Robert Lewandowski and Araújo missing headed opportunities, but held on to make history the hard way, finishing 2-1 down but not out.
