Diego Costa scored twice as Atletico Madrid sealed a spot in the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in 17 years with an impressive 4-1 victory over AC Milan at the Vicente Calderon.
Costa, whose late header earned Atletico a 1-0 first-leg win at San Siro, acrobatically put the Spanish side ahead with the first chance of Tuesday’s last-16 second leg but former Real Madrid star Kaka headed Milan level.
Arda Turan’s deflected strike made it 2-1 to Atletico before the break, and then second-half goals from Raul Garcia and Costa sealed a deserved 5-1 aggregate victory for the Spanish side.
Milan were always up against it even before kick-off, with only two teams in the history of the Champions League ever having recovered from losing at home in the first leg to go and win the tie.
And if that was not worrying enough for the Rossoneri, Atletico were one of only two sides still unbeaten in this season’s competition – the other being Real Madrid – while the Rojiblancos had won 15 of their last 16 home games in Europe.
1st LEG FT: AC Milan 0 – 1 Atletico Madrid
Goal Scorers:
2nd LEG FT: Atletico Madrid 4 – 1 AC Milan
Atletico Madrid: Diego Costa (3′), Arda Turan (40′), Raúl García (70′), Diego Costa (85′)
AC Milan: (27′)
Aggregate Score: Atletico Madrid 5 – 1 AC Milan