Great feelings in Madrid. The lead was decided by penalty kicks

Let's remember that three weeks ago in Milan, Inter won 1-0 thanks to a Marko Arnautovic goal. Although the advantage before the second leg was small, it was certainly valuable, because playing at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid is not easy. Atletico is always very strong at home, and this season La Liga belongs to the “home teams”, scoring 40 out of a possible 42 points at home, and only 15/42 away from home.

The “Los Colchoneros” fans were great as always. They prepared before the game A big reception for the players who arrived at the stadium by bus. The fire was burning, and the policemen on horseback were watching everything, but there was no suspicion of any confusion. The heated atmosphere, of course, extended to the stands, where the fans sang the club anthem ten minutes before the starting whistle. The players felt their efforts and also “excited” the crowd at several points during the match.

The hosts really wanted to surprise their opponents' defense in the fifth minute, but Samuel Leno's shot was blocked by Yann Sommer. Shortly after, Milan responded with two promising shots from Denzel Dumfries – the second of which Jan Oblak hit the post. Just before half an hour had passed, Alvaro Morata scored a wonderful goal in the penalty area. The Spaniard received a good cross, but his header was also blocked by the Swiss goalkeeper.

That was the end of the warnings – the next two actions (in the 33rd and 35th minutes respectively) resulted in goals. In the beginning, the visitors developed a 3-on-3 attack, and Nicolo Barella brilliantly returned the ball to Federico Dimarco, who beat Oblak from a few meters. The Madrid side were losing 0-2 on aggregate, but they followed the club's motto “nunca dejes de creer” (“Never stop believing”) and soon scored a goal of their own. Barilla failed this time. While trying to kick a ball vertically, he didn't hit it at all. It fell at the feet of Antoine Griezmann and the score was 1-1. The Frenchman had the ball to go 2-1 up before half-time, but was blocked in the final minute.

Griezmann also had the first dangerous opportunity in the second half. In the 52nd minute, he received a pass from Marcos Llorente from about 13 metres, but the ball flew perfectly for the right-footed player. The Atleti star's main foot is his left foot, which was visible in the shot taken by Sommer. Not much happened in the following parts of the match. Simone Inzaghi's players performed well without the ball, killing the game. But they managed to pull off a double counterattack that ended with a Marcus Thuram error.

Diego Simeone was looking to revive the game and, of course, score a goal to make it 2-1, which would tie the game. Within eight minutes he sent on Angel Correa, Rodrigo Riquelme, Pablo Barrios and Memphis Depay. The first and last of them could have been heroes in the 81st minute. The Argentine passed into the penalty area, and the Dutchman converted the ball brilliantly, but he lacked a little space to shoot the ball comfortably. Six minutes later, he achieved his goal. He received another pass in the box, did a half-turn and beat Sommer.

The stadium went crazy, at least waiting for extra time, had it not been for Los Colchoneros' goal in normal time. This could have come with 25 seconds left, but Riquelme missed Griezmann's pass. Simeone then lay down on the field. Shortly afterwards, Simon Marciniak ordered extra time.

However, there were more mistakes and rough play than football prowess. To some extent, the story of the confrontation that took place on Tuesday between Arsenal and Porto was repeated, in which the two teams played extra time and waited for penalty kicks more than trying to tip the scales in their favor.

In the first half of extra time, Depay, Correa and Lautaro Martinez had the best chances. Atletico left a better impression, but it was clear that it lost its strength in the second half, and Inter controlled the events on the field. However, this did not translate into significant scoring opportunities. Hakan Calhanoglu missed a free kick from approximately 27 meters away in the 112th minute. Nothing else happened, so the match resorted to penalty kicks.

They started the match with very strong shots from Calhanoglu and Depay. In the second round, the goalkeepers had their moment – first Oblak stopped Alexis Sanchez, and after a while Sommer saved Saul's shot. In the third, Davy Klaassen came close to Inter's ball, but he also failed to beat Oblak. A few dozen seconds later, Riquelme broke the double shot to give Atletico a 2-1 lead.

Acerbe opened the fourth round with a goal. Correa did not commit any error, which means that Lautaro Martinez, who started in the fifth minute, cannot be missed if Milano wants to continue playing. However, he was unable to do so, so he shot the ball over the goal. Atleti won the two-legged series 3-2 at that stage and will play in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.