Vicente Calderon witnessed one of the most tensed games in recent years as Atletico Madrid edged past PSV on penalty shoot out to qualify for Champions League quarter final.
Coming in to the game, Diego Simeone’s men were seen as the favorites but a valiant effort from PSV took the game to a shoot out after 210 minutes of goal-less action.
Despite it being a 0-0 draw, the game was a completely different from the one at Philips Stadion. Both teams gave their all and had a lot of chances to win the game inside 90 minutes.
Antoine Griemann, Luke De Jong and Andres Guardado had chances to score the winning goal for their teams, but poor finishing led to the game to extra time and subsequently to the penalties.
Shootout saw both keepers (Juan Oblak & Jeroen Zoet) were left helpless and first 13 penalties went in before Luciano Narsingh, 117th minute substitute missed his kick. Juanfran then stepped up and took Atletico to the quarter finals.
Atletico Madrid vs PSV Penalty Shootout Highlights
Following the pulsating game at the Calderon, we take a look at key talking points and things learned from Atletico’s win over PSV.
Philip Cocu made one bad call and had to pay for it
PSV manager brought off his main striker Luke De Jong with just 3 minutes remaining in the game. De Jong has scored 23 goals this season, and would have been a definite penalty taker in the shoot out.
Instead, Cocu sent on Narsingh, who went on to miss his kick and hand Atletico their third consecutive Quarter Final berth.
Atletico looked tired, but will be a threat in Quarter Finals
After playing two games inside a week, Simeone’s men looked tired and gasping for breath in closing stages of the game. Having said that, no team would want to face The Rojiblancos in the quarter finals.
The crowd at Calderon and Simeone’s presence on the touchlines is an intimidating figure, which teams would need to be cautious off while playing against Atleti in Champions League quarter finals.
Fernando Torres looked like his old self
We are not jumping the gun here in praising Torres and his performance against PSV last night. El Nino looked like his old self in the way he made darting runs in to PSV’s penalty box, controlled the ball and brought others in to the game.
Torres was by far Atletico’s best player since coming on in the second half, and converted his kick with some great finesse. Torres’ presence up top kept Atletico in the game and allowed players like Griezmann and Koke to come in short and take shots at PSV’s goal.
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