Atletico Madrid have crashed out of Europe entirely as they finished bottom of their Champions League group with defeat in Porto.
Diego Simeone’s side had already been eliminated from Europe’s premier club competition with one round of matches remaining. Their hopes had ended in dramatic circumstances a week ago after failing to score a penalty that had been awarded after the full-time whistle in a draw against Bayer Leverkusen.
The Spanish team went to Porto knowing that they needed a win to guarantee Europa League knockout football, but their defeat in Northern Portugal – coupled with Leverkusen avoiding defeat against Club Brugge – sealed their fate in propping up the table.
Porto and Club Brugge had already qualified for the Round of 16 of the competition, but the Portuguese side needed to beat Atletico and hope that Brugge did not win away in Germany to ensure top spot in the group.
Sergio Conceicao’s side were dominant throughout the contest and it took the home side just five minutes to take the lead as Mehdi Taremi was on hand to tap home a cross-come-shot from Evanilson.
Midway through the first half, the pressure from Porto resulted in a second goal as Canadian international midfielder Stephen Eustaquio got on the end of a cut-back from Wenderson Galeno, who took full advantage of a defensive error from Stefan Savic.
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Atletico Madrid – who were out of sorts throughout the night and comfortably second-best in the encounter – had the ball in the net with 20 minutes remaining as Antoine Griezmann fired home past Diogo Costa, but the goal was ruled out for an earlier infringement from Rodrigo de Paul.
The disallowed goal may have been a harsh officiating decision but in truth Atleti were fortunate that they were not further behind, having goalkeeper Jan Oblak to thank for keeping the visitors in contention with a string of fine saves throughout. A last-minute own-goal from Yannick Carrasco's corner gave Atleti late hope, but it was too little, too late.
Atleti’s loss, combined with a scoreless encounter in Leverkusen, ensured that Simeone’s side are facing the second half of a campaign without any sort of European football for the first time under his tenure and the first time for the club since 2007.
Griezmann told reporters after the game: "We did not deserve to reach the last 16 or even the Europa League, time to shut our mouths, work, and fight."
Porto advance through to the Round of 16 as group winners with Club Brugge advancing as group runners-up as Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen will move into the Europa League Round of 16 playoff stage.
