PARIS: With tears in his eyes, Diego Simeone stared at the Atletico Madrid fans celebrating in the Estadio Metropolitano stands.

Minutes earlier, the coach was pacing back and forth by the sideline, unable to watch the tense penalty shootout that ended with Atletico triumphing over Inter Milan and advancing to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Jan Oblak made two saves and Lautaro Martínez sent his shot over the crossbar as Atletico defeated Inter 3-2 on penalties after a dramatic last-16 clash ended 2-2 on aggregate on Wednesday.

“It was moving,” Simeone said, with the Champions League representing Atletico’s last realistic chance for a title this season. “I’m happy for the players and for the fans. We are among the best eight teams in Europe again. That tells a lot about this club.”

Trailing by a single goal after last month’s first leg, Atletico looked dead and buried when Federico Dimarco pushed home Inter’s opener at the Metropolitano.

But Antoine Griezmann immediately pulled the hosts level on the night and three minutes before the end of the regulation 90 minutes substitute Memphis Depay took the tie to extra time at 2-2 with a fine low finish.

That set up the decisive shoot-out which ended with Inter missing three of their five penalties, star striker Lautaro Martinez handing passage to the last eight to Atletico when he booted his spot-kick way off target.

Atletico didn’t make it past the group stage last season and were eliminated by Manchester City in the last eight in 2021-22.

“I think penalties are a lottery. Today luckily I stopped two,” said Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak, who saved from Alexis Sanchez and Davy Klaassen. “It’s not easy to stop a penalty. Sometimes it looks easy from the outside but it’s not.

“I’m very, very happy for the team because I think we did a great match,” he added. “We played well. Maybe in the last month we’ve not been in great shape but we showed we can do much more.”

Inter, who lost last year’s final to City, had come into Wednesday’s match enjoying a 13-game winning streak. They hadn’t lost in 15 consecutive games in all competitions and had won all of their matches in 2024.

“We must be proud of what we did in this Champions League,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said. “In the second half we should have done better. In extra time we had more energy but unfortunately we made too many mistakes.”

In the other match on Wednesday, Jadon Sancho and Marco Reus were on target as Borussia Dortmund secured a nervous 2-0 win over PSV Eindhoven and a last-eight place for the first time in three years with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Sancho, on loan from Manchester United, threaded his shot through the legs of an Eindhoven player and in off the post in the third minute at the Westfalenstadion, while Reus wrapped up the win with a calm finish in second-half stoppage time.

The 1997 winners did enough against an outclassed PSV but will face stiffer challenges as they return to the quarter-final draw, to be held on Friday, for the first time since 2021.

“I think we really earned our quarter-final spot today with hard work,” said Dortmund coach Edin Terzic. “We played perhaps the best 30 minutes of the season at the beginning.

“We should have scored more goals during that pressing phase. Unfortunately, in the second half, we stopped playing like that but defended with passion but were pleased that we’re going further in the competition.”

PSV were left to rue several missed chances, including when Luuk de Jong blazed over a golden opportunity deep into injury time.

“[We] had the game in our grip but just couldn’t score a goal,” said PSV boss Peter Bosz, who endured a disappointing six-month spell in charge of Dortmund in 2017. “The Champions League is of course the highest level. We were so close. It hurts, but that’s how it is.”

Record winners Real Madrid, holders Manchester City, six-time champions Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain all progressed to the quarter-finals last week.

On Tuesday, Barcelona and Arsenal joined them in the open draw, which takes place on Friday.

The quarters are scheduled for April 9-10 and April 16-17.

Atletico failed to get a single shot on target in the first leg at the San Siro but began fast, backed by a rocking home crowd in Madrid.

It was Inter, though, who opened the scoring. Nicolo Barella received the ball in the area and pulled it back to the waiting Dimarco who drove his shot straight down the middle past Oblak.

Atletico, now 2-0 down on aggregate, hit back immediately. Koke lifted a pass into the area which two Inter players missed completely and it fell to Griezmann who spun and made no mistake from close range.

Griezmann was then denied by Yann Sommer in the second half but substitute Depay equalized on 87 after waves of pressure to send the game to an additional 30 minutes.

After a fairly cagey extra-time, Inter fell apart in the shoot-out.

“It’s tough, really tough,” Sommer told Amazon Prime. “We had some good chances to score more goals, but we didn’t take them. At this level it’s like this. Both sides had chances, small details made the difference.”

Level at 1-1 after the last-16 first leg in the Netherlands, Sancho wasted no time in putting Dortmund ahead with a low shot from outside the area — his first Champions League goal since November 2021.

Dortmund were shaky despite the early lead and needed a fair share of luck and some poor PSV finishing to progress, with Hirving Lozano’s 53rd-minute effort hitting the post.

De Jong could have sent the game into extra time when he was left free in front of goal but instead of tapping in, he sent the ball wildly over the bar in stoppage time, and almost immediately, Isaac Babadi’s slip let in Dortmund substitute Reus to score in stoppage time.

“It feels very nice,” said Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel. “We didn’t let them breathe in the first 30 minutes. I’m now looking forward to facing a very big opponent in the next round.”

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2024