Atleti shut down Actual Madrid on Wednesday, however could not break the Champions League hoodoo that appears to hang-out each Actual opponent. (AP Picture/Bernat Armangue)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
faltered Wednesday on a frantic, grueling evening throughout city, however someway survived a first-minute sucker-punch, a missed Vinicius Jr. penalty and a wild shootout.
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It was examined by Atlético Madrid, by Diego Simeone’s valiant warriors. It was pushed to the brink over 120 brutal minutes. It wavered when skied a Seventieth-minute spot-kick and the Metropolitano roared.
However Actual Madrid, the everlasting Champions League champions, discovered a means, and superior to the quarterfinals, the place they’re going to face Arsenal.
They discovered some luck, as they at all times appear to do, in a penalty shootout, after regulation had ended 1-0 to Atlético, 2-2 on combination. Within the second spherical of kicks from the spot, Atleti’s Julián Alvarez slipped, and nonetheless scored … however replays apparently confirmed that his plant foot had barely clipped the ball as he rocketed it into the roof of the online.
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His conversion was, due to this fact, disallowed by video assistant referees, based mostly on a rule that forestalls penalty takers from taking a number of touches.
The choice elicited confusion and anticlimax. Extra importantly, it gave Actual Madrid an edge.
Jan Oblak, Atleti’s stoic keeper, made a clutch fourth-round save to erase that edge. However Actual’s magic had its means. Atleti’s Marcos Llorente adopted by spanking his shot off the crossbar. Within the fifth spherical, Antonio Rüdiger scored — narrowly, off the palms of Oblak and into the aspect netting.
And Los Blancos pranced across the discipline, nonetheless alive, nonetheless the kings of Europe till additional discover.
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They’re alive regardless of falling asleep within the first 30 seconds, when Atleti pounced on a second ball, and Conor Gallagher scored to negate Actual’s first-leg benefit.
They’re alive regardless of stalling for many of the 120 minutes, regardless of struggling to seek out house between Atleti’s compact strains.
They’re alive regardless of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois not saving a single penalty within the shootout, and regardless of Vini being subbed off in order that he did not should take a second one.
However nonetheless, they’re alive.
Their continued Champions League exploits, and supreme invincibility regardless of obvious vulnerability, have little coherent rationalization. They confound analysts. They make rational individuals doubt possibilities and empirical truths.
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“We did not have luck,” Oblak instructed CBS Sports activities after the heartbreaking loss. “I feel that is the perfect rationalization.”
And Actual Madrid, with loads of it, stay on the right track to win a mind-bending sixteenth European title.
