Simeone’s men shattered after hitting Yellow Wall

ALL Diego Simeone could do was clasp his hands and look to the sky as Borussia Dortmund ran his Atletico Madrid team ragged to reach their first Champions League semi-final since 2013.

Dortmund left Spain after the first leg 2-1 down, ruing an opportunity missed having only got going after falling behind. Here at home it was all about harnessing the energy of their famous Yellow Wall and dictating from the off as youth trumped experience. Julian Brandt, the man of the match, fired Dortmund ahead on the night and levelled the tie with a low drive, before Chelsea loanee Ian Maatsen put them ahead five minutes later. Dortmund, unfancied when the group-stage draw put them with Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle and AC Milan, thrive at home and are now unbeaten in 10 Champions League games on their own patch. Simeone had warned his players they would ‘suffer’ and so it proved. Only this time there would be no pay-back to make it worthwhile, the chance of a first semi-final since 2017 blown away by Dortmund’s storm. Not that it all went to plan for Dortmund. A treble substitution at half-time by Simeone turned the game, at least temporarily, on its head and Mats Hummels’ own goal and a smart finish by Angel Correa soon had Dortmund sweating as Atletico retook the lead on aggregate. They would crumble, though, as Niclas Fullkrug’s arrowed header and Marcel Sabitzer’s sweeping shot into the bottom corner booked the Germans’ spot in the last four.