{"id":48666,"date":"2026-04-15T02:55:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=48666"},"modified":"2026-04-15T02:55:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:25:02","slug":"atletico-madrid-edge-barcelona-3-2-on-aggregate-in-thrilling-champions-league-quarter-final-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/champions-league\/atletico-madrid-edge-barcelona-3-2-on-aggregate-in-thrilling-champions-league-quarter-final-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"Atletico Madrid edge Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate in thrilling Champions League Quarter-Final thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"auto\">Atl\u00e9tico Madrid are through to the <strong>UEFA Champions League semi-finals<\/strong> after surviving a thrilling quarter-final second leg against Barcelona at the Metropolitano on Tuesday night. Despite losing the match 1-2, Diego Simeone\u2019s side held on for a narrow 3-2 aggregate victory.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">Match Summary<\/h3>\n<ul dir=\"auto\">\n<li><strong>First Leg (at Camp Nou)<\/strong>: Atl\u00e9tico stunned 10-man Barcelona 2-0, with goals from Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez (stunning free-kick) and Alexander S\u00f8rloth. Pau Cubars\u00ed\u2019s red card proved costly for Bar\u00e7a.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Second Leg<\/strong>: Barcelona fought back brilliantly in the first half with quick goals from teenage sensation <strong>Lamine Yamal<\/strong> and <strong>Ferran Torres<\/strong>, wiping out Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s aggregate lead.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Turning Point<\/strong>: <strong>Ademola Lookman<\/strong> slotted home for Atl\u00e9tico to restore their advantage in the tie. Late drama followed as Eric Garc\u00eda was controversially sent off (last-man foul on substitute S\u00f8rloth via VAR), leaving Barcelona with 10 men again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Atl\u00e9tico defended heroically in the closing stages \u2014 classic Simeone style \u2014 and booked their spot in the last four. They will face the winners of Arsenal vs Sporting Lisbon.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">Key Highlights<\/h3>\n<ul dir=\"auto\">\n<li><strong>Lamine Yamal<\/strong> lit up the pitch once more with his early strike.<\/li>\n<li>Lookman\u2019s clinical finish shifted momentum back to the hosts.<\/li>\n<li>Red card drama and intense end-to-end action made it a memorable El Cl\u00e1sico-style European clash.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Barcelona showed fight and creativity but couldn\u2019t overcome the first-leg deficit and the numerical disadvantage. Yamal and company created chances, but Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s resilience and experience at big moments shone through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atl\u00e9tico Madrid are through to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals after surviving a thrilling quarter-final second leg against Barcelona at\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":48667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4652],"tags":[4057],"class_list":["post-48666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-champions-league","tag-top-stories"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48668,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48666\/revisions\/48668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}