There goes Manchester United’s last shot at salvation. One by one, this season’s avenues of possibility have been closed off; now an undignified and improbable chase for fourth place in the Premier League is all they have left.
This was actually one of their best performances under Ralf Rangnick, their interim manager, and was full of hunger and intensity, but Atletico Madrid were savvier and more clinical, playing in incisive bursts as opposed to United’s inchoate waves. They scored the crucial goal through Renan Lodi shortly before half-time and thereafter withstood everything that United could throw at them.
Quite literally in the case of Diego Simeone, who, as he ran down the tunnel after the final whistle, was showered with beer and spite; to this god of the football netherworld, it probably felt like a sweet summer drizzle. After all the pain that Cristiano Ronaldo has inflicted on Atletico over the years, they had their vengeance here, snuffing out their dream-killer. Atletico know they still have a chance of crowning Simeone’s reign with the ultimate prize.
United had started so well. Sometimes, the early minutes of a big Champions League tie pass in a kind of polite shadow-play, teams dancing around each other. From the off, United initiated full contact and invaded Atletico’s personal space. Diogo Dalot’s dinked cross might have been left to drift inevitably into the goalkeeper’s gloves, but Anthony Elanga wasn’t afraid to challenge Jan Oblak’s fiefdom, and his header, under pressure from the goalkeeper, dropped on to the roof of the net, while Oblak dropped to the turf, feeling the force of United’s intent.
When Bruno Fernandes got to the byline and drove in a low cross, Elanga’s goalward flick from three yards seemed certain to provide a goal, but from point-blank range, Oblak deflected the ball to safety with his head.
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The early pressure was all United’s. Reinildo Mandava lived dangerously when he went through the legs of Fernandes to play the ball in the box. United knitted together a lovely move full of clever interchanges and subtle angles that ended with Dalot fizzing a shot at Oblak. Fred was having a delightful half, full of style and craft.
And then, in one fell swoop, Atletico reminded United of their threat. Koke played a beautiful pass, slipping the ball into a tiny rivulet of space between Harry Maguire and Alex Telles and into the run of Marcos Llorente, who centred for Félix to tap the ball in. United were reprieved by Llorente’s nervous energy, the wing back having failed to hold his run until Koke played the pass.
But they didn’t heed the warning and the goal came from that same seam between Maguire and Telles. Reinildo won the ball off Elanga and launched a counter. Félix played a gorgeous back-heel to Antoine Griezmann, whose hanging cross found Lodi fatally unmarked at the back post. His header was simple. United protested furiously that the challenge on Elanga had been a foul: no one with more playground pique than Ronaldo, who could be seen making a glasses gesture at one of the assistant referees.
United charged out of the blocks after half-time, Elanga stroking a shot across the goal-face after 30 seconds. But there were also signs of that frayed, fractious, unhappy United, with Fernandes and Jadon Sancho recriminating with each other over a poor pass. De Gea, having received the ball under pressure from Maguire, kicked it straight to Rodrigo De Paul, and once he had saved the ensuing shot, berated his captain for putting him in that predicament. This is the art of frustration at which Atletico excel: not merely drawing the sting, but turning your own venom against you.
Still, United kept coming. A patient move culminated in Fred passing to Dalot, whose hanging cross dropped tantalisingly for Sancho. He met it with a lusty swing of his right boot, but the contact was poor and the ball corkscrewed off target. At the other end, Félix was inches away from converting Lodi’s cross, then De Paul’s corner was headed over by José Giménez.
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A free kick in a promising position, lofted dangerously across the goalmouth by Fernandes, came to nought when Ronaldo, trying to get the run on his marker, ran into Maguire: traffic cone in his own penalty area, concrete bollard in the opposition box. Rangnick gambled on a triple substitution: on came Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Nemanja Matic for Fernandes, Elanga and Scott McTominay.
Now the waves of red shirts were being roared on, the moment becoming more urgent. A lovely free kick from Telles was met by the leaping Raphaël Varane and Oblak could only push it up into the air. Suddenly Ronaldo was aloft in that familiar, majestic upside-down pose, right boot scraping the sky. But he couldn’t get the old, true contact on the overhead kick, and it lolloped up harmlessly into Oblak’s gloves.
Rangnick threw on Edinson Cavani too, and there was a cheer when Maguire was withdrawn for Juan Mata, but United couldn’t find an answer. It will be five seasons without a trophy, two Champions League knockout wins in the past ten years. One of these teams has found a way to make art of darkness; the other is simply receding into the shadows.
Manchester United (4-2-3-1): D de Gea 6 — D Dalot 6, R Varane 7, H Maguire 4 (J Mata 84min), A Telles 6 — S McTominay 6 (N Matic 67 6), Fred 8 (E Cavani 75 6) — A Elanga 7 (M Rashford 67 6), B Fernandes 6 (P Pogba 67 6), J Sancho 6 — C Ronaldo 6. Booked Dalot, Matic.
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Atletico Madrid (3-1-4-2): J Oblak 8 — S Savic 7, J M Giménez 7, R Mandava 6 — H Herrera 6 — M Llorente 6, Koke 7 (G Kondogbia 80), R De Paul 8, R Lodi 8 — A Griezmann 7 (A Correa 90+3), J Félix 8 (Felipe 90). Booked De Paul, Herrera.
Referee S Vincic (Slovenia).
Quarter-final line-up
Bayern Munich
Liverpool
Manchester City
Real Madrid
Benfica
Atletico Madrid
Wednesday night
Lille (0) v Chelsea (2)
Juventus (1) v Villarreal (1)
Draw for quarter-finals and semi-finals is on Friday at 11am,
live on BT Sport
