Last year’s finalist is out: Inter Milan surprisingly failed in the round of 16 of the Champions League. The team around former Bundesliga stars such as Benjamin Pavard, Yann Sommer, Hakan Calhanoglu and Marcus Thuram lost the second leg at Atletico Madrid 2-3 on penalties on Wednesday (March 13, 2024). After regular time and extra time it was 2:1 (1:1) for the Spaniards
Inter won the first leg 1-0. After Milan took the lead through Federico Dimarco (33′), Antoine Griezmann (35′) and Memphis Depay (87′) scored for Atletico, forcing extra time. Thuram should have seen a red card after grabbing Stefan Savic’s genitals in extra time.
Round of 16 arrow right
This is the third time Atletico have reached the quarter-finals in the last five years. Inter was also the last Italian team to be eliminated from the premier class. Who Atletico will face in the next round will be drawn on Friday.
Atletico creates a quick equalizer
The home side started very present and aggressively, and for a long time Inter found hardly any solutions to free themselves from the pressure. But Dimarco took advantage of one of the few chances to make it 0-1. Griezmann almost immediately gave Atletico hope again in return. And so the fans in Madrid saw an entertaining and exciting game. Atletico continued to give everything, kept the tempo very high – and repeatedly caused problems for Inter.
But the guests also defended cleverly and also had chances because the hosts had to open up more. But Thuram (76th) and Nicolo Barella (81st) missed the opportunity to make a preliminary decision from a promising position. Depay then saved his team into extra time – and so Atletico were finally able to reward themselves for their long run in the penalty shootout.
