9th April, 2014
Defending champions, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Atletico had not reached this stage of the tournament since 1974. They beat Barcelona 1-0 in their quarter-final second leg clash to progress 2-1 on aggregate. Atletico — who last beat Barcelona four years ago — got the only goal of the game through Koke, his first in this season’s tournament, in the fifth minute.
Barcelona rarely threatened to level and star player Lionel Messi had an especially torrid night as he failed to score against Atletico for the sixth successive game.
Reaching the semi-finals will see Atletico join city rivals Real, only the fourth time clubs from the same city have reached the last four — Real and Atletico having done so in 1959, AC Milan and Inter Milan in 2003 and Arsenal and Chelsea in 2009.
Holders Bayern Munich thrashed Manchester United 3-1 in their quarter-final second leg match at Munich’s Allianz Arena on Wednesday to go through 4-2 on aggregate.
France defender Patrice Evra had put United ahead on 57 minutes only for Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic to spark the Bundesliga champions into action two minutes later.
Germany striker Thomas Mueller (68) and Dutch winger Arjen Robben (76) completed the scoring for the five-time winners who are bidding to become the first team to defend the Champions League title.