TIL Desk Sports/ Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak was the hero as the Spanish side reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals for the fourth year in a row after drawing 0-0 with Bayer Leverkusen in an open last-16 second leg on Wednesday.
Slovenia international Oblak made an outstanding triple save to deny Julian Brandt and Kevin Volland in the second half and he made further impressive stops late in the game to shut out the Germans and secure a 4-2 aggregate success.
Atletico had the better of the first half and it took a top- class save from Oblak’s opposite number Bernd Leno to prevent Angel Correa giving the Spaniards the lead before the break, flying to his left to tip away a goalbound shot.
The impressive Correa nearly crafted an outstanding goal in the second half but could not find the target while top scorer Antoine Griezmann also came close to putting Atletico out of sight, sending a classy chip just wide.
Atletico’s ruthless counter-attacking in Leverkusen meant the second leg was always going to be less tense than the last time the sides met at the Vicente Calderon in 2015, when the Spaniards sneaked through to the last eight after a penalty shootout.
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