Highlights: Real Madrid 1-0 Atletico Madrid (Agg 1-0); Defending champions book a place in the semis
The eighth Madrid derby of this season, and arguably the most important one, was decided by a single goal scored by a player who had not scored in the competition for 896 days. Javier Hernandez, on loan from Manchester united, scored in the 87th minute to send the Los Blancos into the semi-final for the fifth year running.
Real Madrid manager, Carlo Ancelotti, had a depleted squad to choose from with injuries to major players. He chose to start with Sergio Ramos in midfield along with Toni Kroos and Isco. The front three comprised of Cristiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez and Javier Hernandez, who only started because of the injury picked up by Karim Benzema.
Atletico Madrid, on the other hand, picked a lineup which looked pretty much like the manager Diego Simeone’s first choice with Antoine Griezmann and Mario Mandzukic upfront.
Atletico made their intentions clear right from the off by sitting in deep and trying to hit Real on the counter. The defending champions struggled to make any clear cut chances in the first half an hour of the game despite having the lion’s share of possession and were restricted to shots from distance.
The first good save made by Jan Oblak came in the 32nd ?minute from a Ronaldo free-kick from almost 30 yards. Atletico were struggling in the game with Mandzukic only completing two of the four passes attempted in the first 25 minutes, with one of those being from kickoff.
In the 44th ?minute, Real’s best chance of the half fell to Ronaldo when he was put through one-on-one with Oblak. The young Slovenian made himself big in front of Ronaldo and made the save. Real’s domination was obvious with Los Blancos having completed 269 passes to Atletico's 93.
The second half began just like the first had ended with Real dominating the game and restricting Atletico to feed off scraps. Real kept the pressure on their derby rival’s goal, but the Atletico defence held strong.
The game looked to be heading into extra time with the scores level at 0-0 when Arda Turan was given his marching orders after he received a controversial second yellow for a challenge on Sergio Ramos.
Simeone reacted to the sending-off by sending on Jose Gimenez for Tiago, but it proved futile as Real scored in the 87th ?minute through Hernandez after some good work by Ronaldo on the left flank. Even the brilliant Oblak, who made 15 saves in the game, was unable to keep it out. Atletico tried to give the game one last push, but never really threatened the Real goal.
Real join Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus in the last four of Europe’s premier competition this year.