Atletico beat Bayer Leverkusen on penalties to advance to CL quarters

Atletico Madrid have advanced to the Champions League quarterfinals after recording a 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen on penalties on Tuesday.

Atletico leveled the 1-0 defeat, which they incurred in the first leg in Germany, through Mario Suarez's striker deflected in off Omer Toprak in the 27th minute. Garcia went closest to a winner for Atletico in extra time but Leverkusen keeper Bernd Leno beat his shot away.

Hakan Calhanoglu, Toprak and Stefan Kiessling all missed for Leverkusen as Atletico eventually won 3-2 in the shootout, the BBC reported.

Substitute keeper Jan Oblak was an unlikely hero for Atletico, last year's beaten finalists, after replacing Miguel Angel Moya, who limped off with a hamstring injury midway through the first half.

Oblak has failed to become Atletico's first choice since his 12.6 million pounds move from Benfica as a replacement for Thibaut Courtois, who returned to Chelsea after three years on loan. However, the Slovenian saved Calhanoglu's penalty after Raul Garcia had missed the hosts' first kick.

Atletico's Koke also had a spot-kick saved after Toprak missed before Kiessling blasted the 10th and final kick high over the bar, sending the Spaniards into Friday's quarterfinals draw along with the already-qualified Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Porto and Monaco.

Atletico manager Diego Simeone said that he loved it, adding that as he watched the match ending he could see they were back again among the best eight teams in Europe with his club in a stadium that was erupting. He claimed that it left him with goosepimples.

Bayer Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt said that they are a young team with little experience and it is not easy to hang in there at a stadium like Atletico's. He admitted that they lacked concentration and calm in the shootout, adding that after fighting so hard they are very disappointed.