LEIPZIG LATE SHOW AS ADAMS NICKS IT
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE By IAN LADYMAN
THE great pragmatists of European football are out and who can say we will miss them? Atletico Madrid seemed to have bought themselves a period of extra time at least in Lisbon when young Portuguese substitute Joao Felix won and converted a penalty with 20 minutes to go.
That cancelled out a 50th minute header by Leipzig’s Dani Olmo and it seemed that Diego Simeone’s team would take the game into the extra half an hour and somehow squeeze through.
But just when that seemed a possibility, Leipzig — the more ambitious team all night — broke down the left through Manchester City loanee Angelino and when he pulled the ball back it was lashed in to the net via a deflection by the American Tyler Adams.
When the Spaniard Olmo headed the German side into the lead five minutes into the second half, Atletico had hardly created a chance.
But the conquerors of Liverpool are not a side to give up anything lightly and when that setback drew them from their own half, they suddenly looked an altogether more dangerous team.
Parity arrived with 20 minutes left courtesy of one of the locals. Young Felix has not done an awful lot since a big money move from Benfica last summer but here he energised Atletico and when he won a penalty with a darting and direct run he took the ball himself and drove it across Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi and in to the bottom corner.
The Germans will not have been the least bit surprised by what stood before them last night. This condensed Champions League knockout phase may have been marketed as some kind of summer football festival, but Simeone and Atletico Madrid will not have seen it like that. As such, they sat behind the ball and waited for Leipzig to show their hand.
To an extent, Leipzig did. They enjoyed more of the ball and more of the territory. Crucially, though, the closest they came to a goal in a sketchy first half was from two set-piece chances — one early and one late. First — in just the fourth minute — it was the German defender Marcel Halstenberg who found himself with the goal at his mercy after staying up following a corner. But his left-foot volley from eight yards flew over as he leaned back. It was poor technique.
Much later on, in stoppage time at the end of the first period, the Frenchman Dayot Upamecano did a little better as he barged Kieran Trippier out of the way to meet another corner.
The header was firm but directed straight down the middle of the goal and Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak was able to gather cleanly and comfortably.
That was the sum total of chances for a team that can often be so fluent. Leipzig were missing the talismanic Timo Werner — now at Chelsea — which will not have helped them. Equally, Atletico really are desperately difficult to break down.
Simeone’s team did venture forward occasionally themselves and when they did they carried a threat.
Stefan Savic — once of Manchester City — ended the first half bandaged after a clash of heads with Halstenberg but earlier had directed a chance from a corner in to the hands of the Leipzig goalkeeper. Gulacsi had to be a little sharper in the 13th minute, meanwhile, when parrying a shot crashed towards his right-hand corner by Atletico midfielder Yannick Carrasco.
For the sake of the game something had to happen early in the second half and it did.
The opening goal arrived within five minutes and it was a good one, Leipzig working the ball across the top of the penalty area for Marcel Sabitzer to cross for Olmo to head across and in to the corner.
It was a superb moment, by far the best piece of football of the game so far. It served to open up the contest and bring Atletico out of their own half.
Simeone was not slow to react either. He rarely is. He quickly sent on £113million of talent in the shape of the former Benfica player Felix and, with 20 minutes left, he won a penalty from the lunging Lukas Klostermann and drove it past Gulacsi with his right foot. But that was before Adams won it for jubilant Leipzig.