Atletico squeak into Champions League round of 16, Milan out of Europe
Atletico Madrid rallied from dead last in Group B to finish second and advance to the Champions League knockout stage with a combative 3-1 win over Porto on Tuesday.
AC Milan fell out of Europe entirely by losing 2-1 to Liverpool in a must-win situation.
| # | W | D | L | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 6 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| 2 | Atletico Madrid | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 3 | Porto | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 4 | AC Milan | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
Atletico survived despite going down a man in the 67th minute. Yannick Carrasco received a straight red card for swinging an arm at Porto’s Otavio, leaving his teammates to defend a 1-0 lead at a disadvantage.
However, just three minutes later, Porto’s Wendell was sent off for a sliding challenge, sparking a melee on the sidelines. Atletico then scored twice, and Porto’s Sergio Oliveira converted a penalty to round out a chaotic final few minutes.
Milan needed to beat Liverpool to have a chance of reaching the round of 16 despite upsetting Atletico on Matchday 5. After taking the lead through center-back Fikayo Tomori, the Rossoneri struggled to keep possession and committed errors leading to both Liverpool goals.
Milan’s Franck Kessie allowed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to skip past him and lash a shot at Mike Maignan, and the goalkeeper could only redirect the ball into the path of Mohamed Salah, who tucked in the rebound in the 36th minute.
In the second half, Tomori coughed up possession, and Divock Origi headed the Reds into the lead.
With the win, Liverpool became the first English side to complete the group stage with a perfect six victories out of six, doing so with a relatively young and inexperienced squad at San Siro.
