Atletico hopes snuffed out
Real Madrid reach Champions League final after scare
Atletico Madrid gave their passionate fans hope early on, but in the end it was city rivals Real Madrid who celebrated a return to the Champions League final.
Madrid withstood an early onslaught by Atletico to reach a third Champions League final in four years despite a 2-1 loss yesterday.
Atletico, who trailed 3-0 after the first leg, scored twice in the first 16 minutes through Saul Niguez and Antoine Griezmann at the Vicente Calderon Stadium to move within a goal of sending the semifinal, secondleg into extra time. But Francisco “Isco” Alarcon netted a crucial away goal for Madrid before halftime to secure a 4-2 victory on aggregate and a spot in the final against Juventus on June 4 in Cardiff.
“We knew we were going to suffer, but we are extremely happy to have made it to the final,” Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. “It’s been a very long road and it hasn’t been easy. And to do it for the second year in a row, we need to congratulate everyone in this club.”
Atletico ended their Champions League campaign without a shot at the title and with their fourth straight elimination to their powerful rivals. Madrid defeated Atletico in the final last year and in 2014, and also eliminated their crosstown opponents in the quarter-finals in 2015.
“I’m happy and proud to have shown what we are all about,” Atletico coach Diego Simeone said. “When we said we believed in a comeback, a lot of people didn’t take it seriously. The first 30, 35 minutes we played will remain in the fans’ memory for a long time. But we were playing against a great rival and they took advantage of our mistake in defence.”
Madrid will try to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since the competition’s new format was created in 1992. They will be the first team to have a chance to defend their title since Manchester United made it to consecutive finals in 2008-09.
Before the game, Atletico fans displayed huge banners that read, “proud not to be like you,” a response to Madrid’s message before the first leg. The banners at the Bernabeu last week read “tell me how it feels,” with an image of the Champions League trophy and the words “Milan” and “Lisbon,” the cities which hosted the finals where Madrid defeated Atletico in 2014 and 2016.
Atletico were upset by the banners and provoked Madrid in the run-up to the second leg. The club sent a series of tweets that praised their fans for having unconditional love for the team despite the results, accompanied by the hashtag “they can’t understand”.