Diego Simeone’s side outplayed the record 15-time champions at the Metropolitano stadium for much of the game, but Madrid have never been eliminated by Atlético in the competition and they battled hard after Conor Gallagher’s first-minute opener to secure a 2-2 aggregate draw.
Thibaut Courtois made several saves to thwart Julián Alvarez and Vinicius Junior blazed a penalty high and wide for Madrid.
In the shoot-out Alvarez scored for Atlético but his effort was ruled out as he touched the ball twice because of a slip as he shot.
Marcos Llorente also missed for Atlético and Madrid’s Antonio Rudiger struck the winner for the reigning champions, who will face Arsenal in the last eight.
“We played an average match at home, and here, we came out as if it was already won and in the first move they scored a goal against us, and that messed us up a lot,” Madrid midfielder Fede Valverde said.
“We went to penalties, by the end we were very tired – it was very noticeable, and thank God we won,” he added.
Atlético played with caution in the first leg despite trailing, willing to take a single goal deficit back to the fiery Metropolitano stadium, where they believed they could really turn the heat up on their arch-rivals.
Real Madrid knocked Atlético out in the 2017 semi-finals in the final European game at the Vicente Calderon, with this the first time the derby has been played at Atlético’s new home in the Champions League.
After defeats by Madrid in the 2014 and 2016 finals, the latter on penalties, and elimination on every other occasion the teams have met in the competition, Atlético were desperate to change the narrative, but came up fractionally short.
“It hurts, I think we played a great match, but unfortunately we lacked a bit of luck,” Atlético goalkeeper Jan Oblak said. “The truth is that one feels pain, it hurts a lot.”
Atlético came flying out of the blocks and took the lead after just 27 seconds through Gallagher, levelling the tie on aggregate.
Rodrigo De Paul’s low ball in from the right was not cut out by Raul Asencio and former Chelsea midfielder Gallagher lunged in to beat Courtois from close range.
Atlético were content to sit deep and soak up pressure as Real Madrid pushed the ball around in their territory but were also ready to spring forward on the counter.
Courtois saved on three occasions from Alvarez, who had scored a brilliant goal in the first leg.
Meanwhile, Arsenal drew 2-2 with PSV Eindhoven to complete an emphatic 9-3 aggregate win and set up a quarter-final clash against Real.
The Gunners demolished the Dutch champions 7-1 in the Netherlands last week, making the second leg at the Emirates a formality.
Arsenal, who made seven changes from Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Manchester United, were quickly out of the blocks, scoring in the sixth minute through Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Croatian veteran Ivan Perisic pulled PSV level on the night with a fine finish past the sprawling David Raya but midfielder Declan Rice headed Arsenal back in front.
PSV, seeking to salvage pride after last week’s humiliation, equalised with 20 minutes to go with a well-taken goal from Couhaib Driouech.
Arsenal, who have never been crowned European champions, will play 15-time winners Real Madrid in the last eight after Carlo Ancelotti’s side squeaked past Atletico Madrid on penalties following a 2-2 draw on aggregate.
The two sides have met just twice previously, with Arsenal winning 1-0 on aggregate in the round of 16 in the 2005/06 season.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said the club should enjoy the achievement of reaching back-to-back quarter-finals for the first time since 2010, when Arsene Wenger was manager of the club.
“That tells you the difficulty of it,” said the Spaniard. “We have to value that and recognise that it is very difficult to do it.”
“We’ve done it consistently and now we want to make the next step, which is going to be really difficult, but we are very capable of that,” he added. (AFP)
