MADRID — In the first half, as Tottenham Hotspur imploded and Atlético Madrid joyfully took advantage, there was a feeling of disbelief at the Metropolitano. Even the most optimistic Atlético fan couldn’t have dreamed of this: 1-0 up after six minutes. 2-0 up after 14 minutes. 3-0 up after 15 minutes. 4-0 up after 22 minutes.
Atlético have had some great results this season at home. They beat Real Madrid 5-2 in the derby in September, and they thrashed Barcelona 4-0 here last month in the Copa del Rey. But this is the UEFA Champions League, in a last-16 tie against Premier League opposition: a Spurs team that — inexplicably, looking back — finished fourth in the league phase.
And here Atlético were, capitalizing on self-inflicted Spurs mistake after mistake, apparently finishing off the tie before it had even got going with the 5-2 win.
The fans at the Metropolitano didn’t know what to make of it all. When Tottenham’s hapless starting goalkeeper, Antonín Kinsky, was hauled off by coach Igor Tudor after just 17 minutes, having committed shocking unforced errors for two of Atlético’s opening three goals, the reaction from the crowd wasn’t what you might expect.
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There was no chorus of jeers from the home fans, no desire to stick the boot in. Instead, there were some supportive cheers, and even some whistles for the substitution itself when it was announced. It was a reaction of sympathy and empathy, an illustration of just how awful this must have been for Kinsky, who got none of that sympathy from Tudor, unmoved on the touchline as the keeper trudged past, head bowed.
For Spurs, this eye-catching result might not be rock bottom, even if it felt a lot like it in the first half. There is still the terrifying prospect of relegation from the Premier League, where survival, Tudor had admitted pre-match, is his team’s “first aim.” “[The Champions League] is something extra,” he said. On the evidence of this first leg, it won’t be something extra for very long.
The Metropolitano holds painful memories for Tottenham, the venue for their 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in the 2019 Champions League final. That loss might have hurt more, 90 minutes away from being the best night in the club’s history, but Tuesday’s result hurt in a different way: the pain of the embarrassing first half, the feeling that all of Europe was looking on, wide-eyed, and thinking: What on earth is going on over there?
By contrast, this stadium has been Atlético’s fortress this season. In 21 home games between LaLiga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey, Diego Simeone’s team has won 18, drawn one, and lost two.
Their away form has been another thing entirely — eight wins, seven draws and seven losses — and so their prospects of progressing deep into the Champions League knockout stage were always going to depend on their ability to finish off ties at home, putting them beyond opponents’ reach, before the uncertainty of the away leg.
In Tottenham, they found willing accomplices. In the sixth minute, Kinsky slipped as he tried to play the ball out from the back, gifting it to Ademola Lookman. Lookman found Julián Álvarez, who gave it to Marcos Llorente, who calmly made it 1-0.
Kinsky’s mistake for the third goal was even more slapstick, looking to quickly move on a backpass first time, and only succeeding in stroking the ball straight into the path of Alvarez, who couldn’t miss. That was the goalkeeper’s last intervention in the game, withdrawn by Tudor immediately after.
If there was one frustration on the night for Atlético — exemplified by Simeone’s angry, jumping-up-and-down reaction to Pedro Porro’s goal that made it 4-1 in the 26th minute — it’s that at 5-2, the tie isn’t definitively, comprehensively over.
Atlético have come close to crumbling themselves, under pressure away from home, in the very recent past.
That 4-0 Copa del Rey semifinal win over Barcelona was followed by a 3-0 loss in the second leg last week, with Barça agonizingly close to leveling the tie. It’s a result that can offer just the slightest comfort to Tottenham, and will surely be studied by Tudor’s coaching staff ahead of next week’s second leg in north London.
“The two goals were a shame,” Antoine Griezmann said after the game. “We have to improve what we did in Barcelona, so we don’t repeat it.”
In truth, the chances of a repeat feel slim. Barcelona believed they could turn that tie around, and nearly pulled it off. Tottenham, in their hearts, will not share that belief. By the full-time whistle on Tuesday, the away end at the Metropolitano was nearly empty as the Spurs players went across to clap the few remaining fans who had stayed behind. They didn’t believe, either.
