{"id":604868,"date":"2026-04-15T03:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604868\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T03:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:48:08","slug":"atletico-hold-off-barcelona-comeback-after-lookman-strike-and-garcia-red-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604868\/","title":{"rendered":"Atl\u00e9tico hold off Barcelona comeback after Lookman strike and Garc\u00eda red | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 but above all played, a huge banner was unfurled at the Metropolitano. \u201cWe give everything to win the cup,\u201d it said, and, boy, had they. For the first time, Diego Simeone had seen his team lose a Champions League<\/a> knockout game at home, but it didn\u2019t matter: instead there was delirium, the club\u2019s anthem belted out louder than ever before. \u201cBuah! You don\u2019t know how lovely it is to be among the four best teams in Europe,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n

They had waited a long time for this. Ten years and one day later, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a> eliminated Barcelona to reach the semi-final of the Champions League again. \u201cThis is the third time we\u2019ve done this \u2013 against Messi\u2019s Barcelona, against Lamine\u2019s Barcelona \u2013 and it isn\u2019t easy,\u201d Simeone said; the other two times, in 2014 and 2016, they reached the final to which they are so desperate to return and exorcise the ghosts from Lisbon and Milan. \u201cI\u2019ve been here 14 years and never stop feeling emotional,\u201d Simeone said. \u201cI told the players: thank you, thank you, thank you. For the things we do, the faith we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

They had needed it, Simeone saying there was a moment when his team might have folded but that they had refused. Barcelona<\/a> were 2-0 down from the first leg, but it took just 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 Atl\u00e9tico to take it from them again, Ademola Lookman sweeping in Marcos Llorente\u2019s pass. Seven minutes and so much more, even if it was Lookman\u2019s \u2018winner\u2019 that ultimately sent Atl\u00e9tico through, 3-2 on aggregate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow well [Barcelona] play!\u201d Simeone said. They had fought too, fulfilling Lamine Yamal\u2019s promise that \u201cif we do get knocked out, it will be fighting to the end\u201d. Down to 10 men for 10 minutes after Eric Garc\u00eda became the second Barcelona defender to be sent off in this tie, Hansi Flick\u2019s men threw everything at this. In the 96th minute Ronald Ara\u00fajo, on as an emergency striker, might have even taken it to extra time. His header though went over, leaving him face-down on the turf.<\/p>\n

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 only been playing for 35 seconds when he dashed through and drew a superb save from Juan Musso and it took just three minutes more for him to give Barcelona the lead, guiding under Musso after he and Dani Olmo had hunted down Cl\u00e9ment 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.<\/p>\n

The Atl\u00e9tico Madrid manager, Diego Simeone, had his prayers answered as his side edged past Lamine Yamal and Barcelona, 3-2 on aggregate. Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Despite the first-leg score, Flick insisted that what Barcelona needed was not a miracle, just a performance like this. On 24 minutes, it was level, Ferran Torres turning neatly onto Olmo\u2019s clever ball and guiding high into the net. Lamine Yamal\u2019s perfect delivery with the outside of his boot was then met by Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez\u2019s diving header which was saved brilliantly by Musso. The goalkeeper\u2019s studs caught his face, leaving blood everywhere. It wasn\u2019t long before the Atl\u00e9tico defender Matteo Ruggeri suffered a similar fate, both men bandaged for the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

Atl\u00e9tico though responded by taking the lead back. 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 Marcos Llorente \u2013 and when Llorente runs, no one can catch him. Racing free, he crossed for Lookman to score, this place erupting.<\/p>\n

Still it went on. Torres thought he had levelled but VAR ruled it out and Lamine Yamal somehow escaped four men to provide for Olmo to fire over. But Barcelona\u2019s fuel was burning out, and Atl\u00e9tico 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 Garc\u00eda. And almost as soon as he had come on Alexander S\u00f8rloth was sent dashing through and crashing down. It took a long time and a trip to the screen but Cl\u00e9ment Turpin eventually showed a red card, Garc\u00eda heading up the tunnel alone, shirt thrown down. Unable to wrap it up, Atl\u00e9tico had their nerves shred, Robert Lewandowski and Ara\u00fajo both missing headed opportunities, but held on to make history the hard way, finishing 2-1 down but not out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defeat never tasted so good. At the end of a battle in which both teams had fought and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-604868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}