Atletico Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen on penalties to progress

Atletico Madrid reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League following a 3-2 penalty shoot-out victory over Bayer Leverkusen, after a 1-1 aggregate draw at the Vicente Calderon on Tuesday night.

17 March 2015, 11:30pm

2 min read

Atletico Madrid players celebrate penalty shoot out win over Bayer Leverkusen

Mario Suarez netted after 27 minutes to hand the hosts the lead on the night but with no other score to follow in normal time, the match went to extra-time and penalties thanks to the German side's 1-0 first-leg lead.

Stefan Kiessling missed Bayer's decisive spot-kick as their opponents went through.

Mario Mandzukic started in place of Fernando Torres for the Spanish champions, with the on-loan AC Milan striker dropped to the bench as they aimed to turn things around following defeat in Germany.

The hosts had a half-chance early on before the Leverkusen defence made light work of it as Atleti pressed forward with a corner moments later, but Koke's inswinging effort from the left was well cleared by Roberto Hilbert before visiting goalkeeper Bernd Leno kept out Koke's next attempt.

Diego Simeone's men won a free-kick after 15 minutes, taken by Koke 30 yards out. The Spain forward managed to lift the ball over the opposing wall of defenders but Leno had it under control as he coolly kept it out with an easy catch.

Both sides began to dig deep as they searched for a late winner with Kiessling firing over for the away side, while Simeone brought on Torres to give his troops some fresh firepower before the match went to extra-time.

Kiessling was first to threaten for the visitors but Oblak was well placed to keep him out, while Raul Garcia almost stole it for last year's losing finalists but his long-range effort went wide.

With time running out, Simon Rolfes drilled a shot past the post while down at the other end of the pitch, Leno held out Torres' header as penalties approached.

Garcia sent his effort over the bar for Atleti before Calhanoglu tapped his poor effort kick to Oblak.

The next three - by Griezmann, Rolfes and Suarez - were all fired into the top right corner as the hosts led 2-1 with Toprak's effort going over before Leno saved Koke's shot - with Gonzalo Castro finally levelling for Bayer.

Torres made no mistake as he struck the fifth spot-kick into the bottom corner as Kiessling's miss handed Atletico the victory.