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Atletico into Champions League last 8 after shoot out

Xinhua, March 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Atletico Madrid qualified for the last 8 of the Champions League following a dramatic shoot out in the Vicente Calderon Stadium on Tuesday night.

120 minutes football failed to produce a goal between Atletico Madrid and PSV Eindhoven, but 14 penalties in the shoot out were dispatched without error before PSV forward Luciano Narsingh hit the 15th against the bar giving Juanfran Torres the chance to seal a nerve-wracking night for the Spanish side.

It is the second time in two years Atletico have reached the quarter-finals following a shoot-out after last season' s triumph over Bayer Leverkusen.

Despite not having scored in the away leg Atletico were willing to let their rivals have control of the ball, while looking to hit them on the break.

Atletico' s defense, once again looked strong, and they should have taken the lead after 14 minutes when Koke set up Antoine Griezmann, whose shot was well saved by PSV keeper, Zeroen Zoet.

At the other end Jan Oblak showed he is a good insurance police for the Spanish side by cutting out an effort from Marco van Ginkel, as PSV continued to look lively against a home side that was being overly conservative in its ideas, while their rivals looked to push their full backs forward on every possible occasion.

Greizmann did have another great chance before the break when his header was well parried by Zoet.

The second half began with Jose Gimenez heading over for Atletico, before Simeone made a change and introduced Fernando Torres for the ineffective Augusto Fernandez, but he had Oblak to thank for keeping the scores level after he parried Jurgen Locadia' s shot onto the post in the 57th minute.

The game turned into an end-to-end affair with both sides starting to attack without creating clear cut chances until a moment of vintage Torres forced Zoet to parry from a narrow angle with four minutes of normal time remaining as the game went into extra time.

Atletico were forced to substitute the injured Diego Godin for Lucas Hernandez for the extra 30 minutes and Simeone' s side looked to have the better legs as PSV were increasingly bottled back in their own half with less chance of creating anything on the break.

Neither side was able to steal a winner in extra time so the game went into the decisive penalty shoot out. Endit