Atletico Madrid forward Julian Alvarez shook his fist in celebration after his shot flew in to the roof of the net, from his team’s second penalty of Wednesday night’s Champions League penalty shootout at home to their city neighbours Real Madrid.
Alvarez had slipped over as he took the spot kick, but the ball had gone in, and the vast majority of the just over 69,000 crowd in Atletico’s Metropolitano stadium cheered, thinking they were one step closer to victory in their last 16 tie. The stadium scoreboard also marked the shoot-out score up to 2-2.
Madrid’s Fede Valverde picked up the ball to take his side’s third penalty, and Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak walked towards the goal to get ready to try and save it.
But referee Szymon Marciniak put up his hand to tell everyone to wait, and then made the VAR TV signal.
Not everyone in the stadium knew what was going on, but some players had an inkling — Madrid’s Jude Bellingham held up two fingers to the official standing with the teams on the half-way line.
After an agonising wait, Marciniak crossed his arms in an X motion, and Real Madrid’s players and fans reacted with jubilation, while the Atletico family shook their collective heads in dismay. Alvarez’s penalty would not count, because it was adjudged that as he slipped, the ball had brushed off his standing foot.
Arguably it makes no sense that a goalkeeper moving early before the penalty taker strikes the ball, in order to deliberately gain an advantage, results in a retake if the officials spot it. While a penalty scored via a completely accidental double-kick, which no player would ever attempt intentionally, is counted as a miss.
But the rules are the rules (or the laws are the laws) and the stadium scoreboard went back to showing Madrid were 2-1 ahead. Despite having waited so long to take his kick, Valverde was unruffled, and he fired the ball low to the corner to make it 3-1.
Alvarez slipped at the crucial moment (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Had Alvarez penalty counted, it was all even. But now the momentum had shifted, Real Madrid were on top. Atletico’s next taker was Angel Correa, who also slipped and his penalty was almost saved by Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois.
Even still there was still some hope for Atletico — as Madrid’s Lucas Vazquez’s penalty was very central and Oblak saved.
But almost immediately the momentum swung again. Atletico’s Marcos Llorente — who came through Real Madrid’s youth system and whose father and uncle also played for both clubs — stepped up and smacked his penalty off the crossbar and out.
That meant that Real Madrid’s Antonio Rudiger had a kick to win it. Even then there was even more dashed hope for Atletico — Oblak guessed the right way, and got a decent hand to the ball, but could not keep it bouncing behind him to the net.
Rudiger went off running up the pitch in celebration, joined by his exultant teammates, to celebrate with the delirious Madrid supporters up the far end of the stadium.
Almost everyone else in the ground slumped over in desperation. It had happened again. Atletico’s players raised themselves for a desultory lap of appreciation for their supporters, but most had already drifted out into the long, sad night.
This was yet another bitterly cruel Champions League exit for Atletico against their city neighbours — the fifth time in 11 years they have met in the closing stages of this competition, and each time it has been Madrid who have come out on top, often in the most dramatic of cirumstances.
In the 2014 Champions League final in Lisbon, Atletico were seconds away from winning the trophy until Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos headed a 93rd minute equaliser, and Los Blancos ran out easy 4-1 winners in extra-time.
Two years later in Milan the teams met again in the final. Antoine Griezmann missed from the spot in normal time and it finished 1-1 after 120 minutes. Oblak was unable to even get a hand to any of the penalty kicks he faced that night, a former Blancos youth teamer Juanfran Torres missed his, and Real Madrid won 5-3 to lift the trophy.
A dejected Juanfran Torres after his miss the in 2016 final (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Atletico also suffered more Champions League pain against their neighbours during that period. In 2014-15 a tight two legged quarter-final was decided by just one goal, Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez smuggling the winner at the Bernabeu, after Atletico player Arda Turan had got himself sent off and handed Real Madrid a crucial advantage. In 2016-17, it was not so close, a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick in the first leg setting Los Blancos on the way to a comfortable 4-2 aggregate victory.
Atletico’s misfortune in the competition goes even further back. Club legend Luis Aragones put his side 1-0 ahead in extra-time against Bayern Munich in the 1974 European Cup decider at Brussels’ Heysel Stadium, and his side seemed sure to have won as the game moved into its 120th minute.
But Bayern defender Hans Georg Schwarzenbeck’s 35 yard speculative shot went past an apparently distracted Atletico goalkeeper Miguel Reina, and four days later Bayern won the replay 4-0. Thus began the ‘Pupas’ curse, a jinx and millstone which Atletico just cannot seem to shake.
During Simeone’s 14 years in charge, Atletico have won every other trophy they have played for — Copa del Rey, Europa League, Spanish Supercopa and they even beat Madrid in a European Supercup final in 2017-18. But the Champions League remains the one they just cannot get.
They have won three other penalty shoot-outs in this competition in recent years, including against Inter Milan at the Metropolitano in last season’s last 16, when Oblak was the hero with two key stops.
There has also been a growing feeling around Atletico that they are different now. No longer are they the humble outsiders always fated to lose against their more aristocratic neighbours from across the city. The club has made a big leap forwards over the last decade, symbolised by their 2017 move from their old crumbling Vicente Calderon home to their shiny new Metropolitano stadium.
The team has also evolved a lot, and is now full of big stars who have won huge trophies at club and international level. New financial strength meant they could spend €200m on new players last summer to build a squad which may not have as many superstars as Madrid but arguably has more strength in depth across each position.
One of last summer’s signings was Conor Gallagher, signed from Chelsea for €35m. The England international has had an up and down first year in Spain, but he made his mark with the opening goal on Wednesday night, and for much of the game outshone his England teammate Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid.
The most expensive, and cherished, of the new players was Alvarez, a €75m capture from Manchester City. The Argentine scored Atletico’s goal in last week’s first leg at the Bernabeu, his 22nd of the season. He came very close to adding another on Wednesday night, being denied on two occasions by excellent Courtois saves.
Alvarez celebrates scoring in last week’s first leg (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Atletico have often matched, and beaten, Madrid in domestic competition in recent years. In January 2024, Griezmann scored a crucial extra-time goal as his team knocked their neighbours out of last year’s Copa del Rey at the Metropolitano. The last three La Liga meetings have all finished 1-1.
Over the two legs in this tie, Atletico outplayed their old neighbours in long periods, and many around the Metropolitano will feel that, on the balance of the play, they deserved to go through to the quarter-finals. They will also have felt fate tilting their way when Vincius Junior’s penalty in normal time on Wednesday flew high into the Metropolitano stands.
But in the end it was Real Madrid who were celebrating, as they always seem to be, after these clashes. Carlo Ancelotti’s team did not really play that well at all, in either of the two games, but once again they had ended up on top.
“Most of these players were not here before,” said Simeone afterwards, when asked if history had played a part. “We competed in an exemplary way. We couldn’t beat Real Madrid in the Champions League, but they had a bad time in both games. I won’t speak about luck, I will speak about my pride in the team we have, the way we always compete, and what we have done at this club will go down in history.”
Even still, this latest blow will take a lot of getting over for Atletico, who somehow now have to lift themselves for a crucial La Liga game at home to Barcelona on Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid will feel that — as so often before — this is their competition and they can go on and win the trophy yet again.
Atletico’s painful record against their neighbours in European competition had come up in Tuesday’s pre-game press conference at the Metropolitano, when Simeone was asked what gave him faith that his team could finally overcome their history and beat their neighbours in a Champions League game.
“The only one who knows what will happen is God,” was the Argentine’s reply.
The way things unfolded so cruelly for his team the following night back at the stadium, it seems clear that God is not an Atletico supporter.
(Top photo: Javier Soriano/Getty Images)
