A deserved victory for Atlético. Barcelona should have had a penalty right at the end, of course; Gabi handled Iniesta’s shot inside the box. But then should Iniesta have been on the pitch, after making a save as last man to concede a penalty himself a couple of minutes earlier? Questions, questions. But on the whole the home team were far superior. Every single one of their players put in a fine performance; the same can’t really be said for Barcelona, who were very poor indeed. Lionel Messi stomped off with a face on, the most notable thing he did all evening. So Atletico make the semis, where they may get a chance to avenge their 2014 final heartbreak at the hands of city rivals Real. Barcelona, meanwhile, join the long list of Champions League winners unable to hang onto their crown. Ah well, there’s always next year!
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FULL TIME: Atletico Madrid 2-0 Barcelona (agg 3-2)
Atletico had done it! Deservedly so! They do have Barca’s number in Europe!
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90 min +5: Turan tries to break down the right. Filipe Luis steps across, and shepherds the ball out of play. Magnificent defending under pressure!
90 min +4: Koke is booked as Atletico do an awful lot of faffing down the right wing, deep in Barca territory. He’s happy to take it. Time ticks on.
90 min +3: Savic comes on for Fernandez. A clock management classic.
90 min +2: Messi takes, looks for the top right corner, and blooters it harmlessly over the bar. Barcelona’s reign is almost over. Though exactly how long they have to save themselves is unclear: no board’s been shown!
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90 min +1: Barcelona should have had a penalty! Iniesta, to the left of the D, tries a curling shot. It hits Gabi’s hand. Gabi’s arm went to the ball. He’d stepped out of the area, but his hand was inside. Barcelona are livid, but all they’re getting is a free kick. You might hear a bit more about that.
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90 min: After a lot of faffing, Correa comes on for the two-goal hero Grizemann. And is immediately booked for taking so long to walk on!
GOAL! Atletico Madrid 2-0 Barcelona (Grizemann 88 pen; agg 3-2)
Grizemann threads the ball into the bottom right. Ter Stegen gets a hand on the ball, but it’s a weak one, and his wrist gives like the hinge on a saloon door. Barcelona needed a goal; they still need a goal. If they get one, we’re in extra time. But as things stand, the champions are going out!
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Penalty to Atletico!
87 min: A break by Filipe Luis, who powers down the inside-left channel and enters the box. He looks to slip the ball right towards Griezmann, but Iniesta dives on the penalty spot to stop the pass reaching the man with his hand. That should be a red card, really, but there’s not even a booking. It is a penalty though!
85 min: Atletico are beginning to panic, as the game has turned into attack versus defence. Lucas Hernandez takes a fresh-air swipe at a clearance, and so surprised is Koke that he nearly handles the ball. Godin finds Row Z, and everyone calms down.
84 min: Suarez certainly isn’t giving this up. He first breaks down the right and fizzes a low cross into the box; it’s cleared. Then he hits a snapshot on the turn amid a melee in the area, but there’s no pace in the effort and Oblak is behind it anyway.
83 min: Free kick for Barca out on the right. They load the box. Messi takes. Oblak comes out and flaps a little. But he half clears. Then Pique breaks into the area down the left, and flies over Filipe Luis’s leg. He’s after a penalty, and should be booked for a creative dive. But it’s a fine tackle and play goes on.
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81 min: Messi, dropping deep, tries to find Neymar down the inside-left channel with a floating ball. It’s not particularly accurate, though, and drops like a feather into Oblak’s arms. Barcelona have been much better as an attacking force in this second half, and yet the keeper hasn’t had to make too many crucial interventions. Most unlike Barca.
79 min: A bit of Atletico possession in the Barca half for the first time in a while. Griezmann and Partey think about one-twoing to open up the visitors down the left, but opt to hog the ball for a bit longer instead. Tick, tock.
77 min: Jordi Alba cuts in from the left and has a shot, but it’s blocked easily enough. Neymar then chases after Juanfran down the left, the latter shepherding the ball out of play for a goal kick. Which he does, and Neymar takes a frustrated lash at the back of his legs. That’s an obvious yellow, and if the referee was in the mood, a red. But yellow it is. Neymar is swarmed by blue shirts, who are less interested in fighting and more interested in wasting some time, I’ll be bound. Again, who can blame them? Look at the score, against the reigning European champions, and look at the clock.
75 min: Some head tennis in the Atletico box. Suarez loops one towards Messi, and for a second it looks like a goal is certain. But Oblak comes off his line to punch convincingly upfield.
74 min: As has the replacement of Carrasco with Partey, which took forever and a day. Atletico already resorting to clock management in the professional style, and who could blame them? They’re within touching distance of the semi-finals.
72 min: Turan tries to burst clear down the right, but Juanfran comes across and boots the ball in his opponent’s face. It twangs out for a goal kick. That minor brouhaha has disrupted Barcelona’s momentum.
70 min: Gabi is booked for making sure Messi doesn’t move with purpose down the inside-right channel. After the restart, Turan whips a cross into the Atletico box from the right. Suarez tries a header, but Godin gets in front. Atletico clear. Suarez has clocked Godin on the lug with his elbow, a bit of Fellaini-style rough and tumble. Godin complains quite a lot. Suarez gets booked. Filipe Luis and Neymar think about booting each other in the swingers, but are pulled apart by team-mates. Marvellous old-fashioned fun.
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67 min: Iniesta rolls a ball down the inside-left channel for Suarez, who rolls Godin and batters a fierce shot straight at Oblak. That will have stung the keeper’s hands. It’s not clear how Atletico can hold out here: it’s attack versus defence, and Barca are getting incrementally closer with every attempt on goal.
65 min: Barcelona make a double change: Arda Turan and Sergi Roberto come on for Rakitic and Dani Alves. Turan’s first act is to shoot from 20 yards. It’s charged down. Suarez instigates some head tennis in the Atletico box. A corner, which is fairly quietly dealt with by the hosts. But the champions are beginning to apply some serious pressure now.
63 min: Diego Simeone isn’t happy at what his team are up to. They’re sitting far too deep now, inviting pressure. Twice in a minute, shots fly straight at Oblak from the left, first Jordi Alba, then Iniesta. Simeone hops from foot to foot.
62 min: Barcelona have been growing into this half, probing and prodding, very nearly opening Atletico up. But then suddenly Grizemann is chasing after a long ball down the right, and with no support, he makes it all the way into the box. Faced with a difficult angle, he powers straight at Ter Stegen, who stoops to gather at the near post.
60 min: Jordi Alba finds himself released into the Barca area down the right. He fires low into the middle. Pique was six yards out, waiting to tap home, but Gabi, at full stretch, hooks away. That’s top-class defending.
58 min: Messi tries a snapshot from the left-hand corner of the Atletico D. It’s deflected away to the left of the goal for a corner. From the set piece, Barcelona confuse themselves. Messi is forced into an up-and-under, just to see what might happen. Atletico clear easily, is what happens.
56 min: Barcelona ping it around in a fairly pointless fashion. Iniesta tries to inject some pace by attempting to break into the Atletico area down the left, but Gabi steps in and quietly dispossesses his man before striding off with a whistle.
54 min: And now Atletico hit the bar. Fernandez, on the edge of the Barca D, heads into the mixer. Lucas Hernandez, 12 yards out and level with the right-hand post, loops a header over a flat-footed Ter Stegen and onto the crossbar! Again Barca clear, but their status as champions of Europe is hanging by a thread right now. They’re in tatters at the back, and doing next to nothing up front. Atletico have spooked them with their relentless pressing game.
53 min: Barca are all over the shop. Koke, out on the right, whips a low ball into the middle. Lucas Hernandez very nearly connects on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. He doesn’t though, and Barca clear in a panic.
50 min: Juanfran goes romping down the right, then slips a ball inside for Koke, who chases after it down the channel and into the area. He gets to the ball ahead of Ter Stegen, who has come out to claim but failed. Koke pulls the ball back into the middle. The keeper’s out of the game, but Pique hooks clear before the inrushing Carrasco can batter towards an unguarded net.
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48 min: Barca are oozing discontent already. They win a corner. Pique tries some sort of shot from wide on the left. It would have looked wild on a rugby field.
47 min: Iniesta and Busquets look uncharacteristically confused as they allow Koke to latch onto a simple ball bouncing down the middle, and very nearly slip Griezmann away. Eventually Ter Stegen comes off his line to deal with the situation.
The second half gets underway
Below-par Barca get the ball rolling again. “What are the Champions League rules for emergency transfers?” wonders Charles Antaki. “Do Barcelona have time to get permission to fly in Wes Morgan, Danny Drinkwater and Jamie Vardy and save their season?”
Half-time entertainment: Here’s Atletico winning their first European trophy, the 1962 Cup Winners Cup, with a little help from Fiorentina and Italy keeper Enrico Albertosi, who drops one of the biggest clangers you’re ever likely to see, and would eight years later have four goals whipped past him in a World Cup final.
HALF TIME: Atletico Madrid 1-0 Barcelona (agg: 2-2)
And that’s that for the half. Barcelona are on a very average run of form at the moment. If they don’t snap out of it in the next 45 minutes, they’re going out of Europe. Because Atletico have been in total control of this match, and on balance of play thoroughly deserve their lead. It’s been a fascinating first half; the second half promises to be just as intriguing. No flipping!
44 min: Carrasco goes on a long walk down the inside-left channel. Barca collectively opt to make no challenge. He reaches the edge of the area, and shoots straight at Ter Stegen, whose handling isn’t great. If Saul Niguez had kept up with play, he could have been sniffing around the rebound there. But he wasn’t, and the Barca keeper gets away with it.
42 min: Neymar is the best part of 30 yards out, down the inside-left channel. He tries to loop an up-and-down curler into the top right. It’s very nearly in, too, sailing on an absurd arc of Dimitri Payet proportions. But Oblak is a big man, and he’s not letting that past him. He springs up and collects well. Lovely effort out of nothing. It’s the best Barca have managed tonight. They really need to get their gamefaces on, because Atletico look in disciplined mood, even by their own high, stubborn standards.
39 min: Suarez and Godin race after a ball down the Barca left. Suarez sticks his leg round his Uruguayan team-mate in an effort to win the ball. It’s a foul, but there’s nothing in it. Godin performs a triple salchow with pike. But that wasn’t an awful challenge, a foul and nothing more. Godin eventually stops rolling around and Suarez apologises. His international team-mate makes out like he’s heard nothing. Not pals tonight.
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GOAL! Atletico Madrid 1-0 Barcelona (Griezmann 36; agg 2-2)
This came out of nothing! Saul Niguez, on the right-hand corner of the Barca box, flicks a gorgeous cross towards Griezmann with the outside of his boot. The ball falls perfectly for Griezmann, and he powers an unstoppable header into the top right. Ter Stegen had no chance. Not right in the top corner, but powerful enough to give the keeper no chance. As things stand, the European champions are going out on away goals!
Photograph: Ruben Albarran/Rex/Shutterstock
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34 min: After a pause for general faffing, Messi steps up. One step, two step, flick! It sails over the bar, a grave disappointment. Maybe he should have taken a proper run-up and given it a good old-fashioned hoof. The official Guardian in-match !-O-Meter™ is suddenly up to 3, by the way.
32 min: Inietsta performs a fancy flick just outside the Atletico box, to the left of the D, maybe five yards back from it. Godin comes through him, tossing him into the air like an old sock. Diego Simeone doesn’t agree with the referee’s decision to award a free kick, but he’ll have to suck it up. This is in a very dangerous position, and here comes Messi!
29 min: Carrasco drops a shoulder and tries to go past Pique on the outside, just inside the Barca box on the right. It’s very nearly successful, because he turns Pique so skilfully the defender slips over. But his brilliance is his undoing. Pique falls on the ball as he turns, and manages to trap it with his inner thigh, before getting up and clearing. That was marvellous improvisation, especially as he managed to neither handle the ball, nor injure his nadgers. Atletico claim a penalty, but Pique went out of his way to pull his arm away there. Lovely initial skill from Carrasco, though.
27 min: Corner for Barcelona down the left. Neymar takes, and plonks it straight down Oblak’s throat. Neither keeper has had much to do yet.
25 min: Barcelona are enjoying more of the possession right now, much to the annoyance of the home support. But they lose the ball quickly enough every time they push into enemy territory. Atletico’s pressing game is highly effective. They swarm around Messi and Suarez as the pair try to combine down the right, and Koke races off upfield, eventually buying a free kick off Dani Alves. Pressure off. It’s an organisational masterclass.
23 min: Messi is near his own box on the Barca right, helping Dani Alves overcome Carrasco. It’s that sort of game right now.
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20 min: This has turned into an attritional grind. Dani Alves tries to release Neymar down the left with a raking diagonal pass, but the striker is nudged out of the road. Carrasco makes a nuisance of himself just inside the Barca box on the right, but can’t get the ball from under his feet, falls over, and makes a half-arsed claim for a penalty. But his heart’s not really in it.
17 min: Neymar goes on a skitter down the left, but he eventually loses control of the ball, and then almost loses his teeth as Godin gives him a very light but very cheeky nudge towards the advertising hoardings as the pair leave the confines of the pitch. Neymar puts the brake on just in time.
15 min: Nothing much happening right now. Just as Barca like it. Atletico are the ones who need to score: as things stand, the champions are going through 2-1 on aggregate. And the home side’s early fire has been doused a little. But the fans keep on keeping on. This really is a belting atmosphere, European and Spainsh football at its best. “It is difficult to do justice to the fevered atmosphere at the Calderon in an MBM,” writes Andy Gordon, “although the Madrid newspaper Marca’s reportage has already got through 24 exclamation marks.” Is that counting the inverted ones at the front? Either way, that’s a decent effort! [Official Guardian in-match !-O-Meter™: 1]
12 min: Barca take the sting out of things with a bit of sterile possession in the midfield. The home fans aren’t letting up. But the European champions haven’t looked totally certain at the back, so they could do with taking stock awhile.
9 min: Atletico have started very brightly. Carrasco is sent scampering down the right flank twice in the space of 90 seconds. First time round, he blooters a cross-cum-shot behind for a goal kick. His second sortie sees him fizz a low centre straight through the box, with Griezmann - who had played the initial pass - struggling to keep up. The ball flies out the other side. In between, Mascherano, of all people, had a dig from distance for Barca, but his shot was closed down the second it left his boot. This is already a lot of fun.
7 min: Filipe Luis has a bit of space on the left. Time to look up for Griezmann in the centre. And he finds him, on the penalty spot. Griezmann flashes a header goalwards, but again Atletico’s effort is straight at Ter Stegen. Griezmann was in an awful lot of space there, though a wee bit too far out: he would have needed to wind his neck back in the Suarez style to generate enough power to trouble the keeper with that one.
5 min: Carrasco cuts in from the left but his attempt at a curler from 25 yards wafts harmlessly into Ter Stegen’s arms. The atmosphere really is cracking. Barcelona are getting the bird every single time they kick the ball. Suarez is being singled out for extra-special treatment, which is just how he likes it. Mind how you go, Atletico fans.
3 min: Juanfran goes on a sortie down the right, and hits low towards the near post. The ball’s only half hacked clear by Pique. Gabi, charging into the box down the inside-right channel, meets the loose ball and has a first time shot. I think he was looking for the top-left corner, but his effort at a rising, diagonal strike flies miles over the bar. It wasn’t the easiest of chances, but still, he should probably have at least got that on target.
2 min: Some early Barcelona possession, Messi sashaying down the right but forced eventually into touch, and the home fans continue with the loud whistling. Maybe they should rename the Vicente Calderon after Roger Whittaker. A gag for the pop kids there.
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And we're off!
The match ball has “Final Milano 2016” written on it. Which is a bit previous. Anyway, it’s rolling. And it’s the home heroes who set it in motion. A stunning atmosphere at the Vicente Calderon. Hardly a surprise. Here’s to a cracker. A long kick by Oblak, and a bit of scrappy head tennis in the midfield. Give it time.
The teams are out! The official Uefa ear-bleeder is parping apologetically from the stadium stereo. To the credit of every fan present, it’s getting drowned out by whistles, and with some feeling. Both teams, like last week, have been forced into their away kits by Uefa for some reason or other. Are their first kits that alike? Maybe it’s for the benefit of those still watching in black and white. I can’t be the only one still watching in black and white. Thanks, Uefa!
The only change made to either team from the first leg is an enforced one. Atlético striker Fernando Torres, sent off at Camp Nou, is on the naughty step, so in comes Augusto Fernandez to put himself about instead. Barcelona meanwhile go with the time-honoured policy of If It Ain’t Broke... and name the same starting XI that emerged victorious last week.
The teams
Atlético Madrid: Oblak, Juanfran, Godin, Lucas Hernandez, Filipe Luis, Fernandez, Gabi, Koke, Saul Niguez, Carrasco, Griezmann.
Subs: Moya, Kranevitter, Savic, Correa, Gamez, Partey, Vietto.
Barcelona: ter Stegen, Dani Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Jordi Alba, Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta, Messi, Suarez, Neymar.
Subs: Bravo, Douglas, Arda Turan, Bartra, Munir El Haddadi, Sergi Roberto, Adriano.
Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (Italy)
🎼 ♭ Die Meister! ♫ Die Besten! ♪ Les grandes équipes! ♫ The champions! ♪ ♫
Atlético Madrid welcome Barcelona to the Vicente Calderón, where the big question will tonight be answered: do Diego Simeone’s team have the Champions League holders’ number in Europe? Atlético have already put them out of the Champions League once, at this quarter-final stage two years ago. And there’s a fair chance they’d have done for them again at Camp Nou last week, had Fernando Torres not lost his mind and turned into a Sergio Busquets tribute act, or had Luis Suarez received his marching orders for booting Juanfran up the jacksie with perfect silent-movie comic timing.
Atlético left Catalunya fuming. For the neutral, though, this is set up perfectly. Simeone’s side need a win tonight, and their home record is superlative: they’ve lost just two of their last 28 European games on friendly soil, winning 23 of them. History is in their favour all right. They’ve won just over half - 11 from 20 - of European ties in which they lost the away first leg. That total includes five aggregate wins from six ties when the first game ended 1-2. Watch out, Barça!
Having said all that, history can be Barcelona’s pal too: they’ve won 38 of the 40 European ties in which they won the first leg at home. The only times they’ve lost in this sort of situation, it’s English teams who have done for them: Manchester United in the 1983/84 European Cup Winners’ Cup, on the greatest European night in Old Trafford’s history, and Aston Villa in the 1982 Super Cup, when Barça was the byword for cynical brutality. If you haven’t read about the latter, you’ve missed out on a classic. Paul Doyle tells the hilarious story.
So anyway: history? It teaches us nothing. Maybe recent form is more of a guide. Barça aren’t in the best of form: they’ve lost two of their last three, and their first-leg victory in this tie is their only win in the last four. Lionel Messi hasn’t scored for 362 minutes, an uncharacteristic drought which on the face of it is good news for Atlético, but we all know how these things usually pan out. Atlético meanwhile, in their last four matches against La Liga opposition at the Vicente Calderón, have scored 14 goals. Antoine Griezmann has five of those; with Torres suspended, much depends on him tonight.
This is poised beautifully, then: Europe’s aesthetes against a team who may or may not have their number. It promises to be a classic. Further confirmation of Barca’s genius? Another display of exquisite Atlético control? Extra time? Penalties? A bench-emptying brawl started by another silent-movie boot up the arse? All of this and more, please! It’s on!
Kick off: 7.45pm BST, 8.45pm in Spain.
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