Atlético Madrid has never lost a home knockout game in the Champions League in the Diego Simeone era and it maintained this amazing record tonight (Wednesday), when it beat Borussia Dortmund 1:2 in the first match between the teams in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Although Dortmund won only three and lost 11 of their last 19 games on Spanish soil, today they can look at the glass as half full for returning to the game and almost equalizing in extra time.
Simeone was informed last night that Memphis Depay would be out for three to four weeks through injury and Alvaro Morata and Antoine Griezmann struggled to create scoring chances, but Atletico Madrid fans rocked the Estadio Metropolitano twice in the first half when two huge mistakes set up easy goals for Rodrigo de Paul (4) and Samuel Lino (32) . In the second half, the story was already completely different, because Simeone took a step back and told his players that they must keep the double advantage.
Edin Trezic from the other end sent more and more attacking tools and in the end it was the substitute Sebastian Haller who in the 81st minute got the goal that reached the yellow-blacks and made it 2:1 at the end. Other substitutes, Julian Brandt and Jamie Beyno-Gitness stopped in the crossbar in the final minutes and were not far from a dramatic 2:2. One way or another, everything is open for the rematch next week in Germany.
