Atlético hold off Barcelona comeback after Lookman strike and García red

Defeat never tasted so good. At the end of a battle in which both teams had fought and both had bled, in which they had suffered but above all played, a huge banner was unfurled at the Metropolitano. “We give everything to win the cup,” it said, and, boy, had they. For the first time, Diego Simeone had seen his team lose a Champions League knockout game at home, but it didn’t matter: instead there was delirium, the club’s anthem belted out louder than ever before. “Buah! You don’t know how lovely it is to be among the four best teams in Europe,” the coach said.They had waited a long time for this. Ten years and one day later, Atlético Madrid eliminated Barcelona to reach the semi-final of the Champions League again. “This is the third time we’ve done this – against Messi’s Barcelona, against Lamine’s Barcelona – and it isn’t easy,” Simeone said; the other two times, in 2014 and 2016, they reached the final to which they are so desperate to return and exorcise the ghosts from Lisbon and Milan. “I’ve been here 14 years and never stop feeling emotional,” Simeone said. “I told the players: thank you, thank you, thank you. For the things we do, the faith we have.” Continue reading...