Antoine Griezmann double dumps favourites Barca out as Lionel Messi and Co draw a blank

 Atletico Madrid knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League with an Antoine Griezmann double to ensure that they, and not the holders, join Manchester City in the last four.

Griezmann’s first-half header levelled the tie on aggregate and his second-half penalty, after Andres Iniesta handled in the area, made sure there was no need for the away goals rule.

‘We want to annoy people in the semi-finals,’ Diego Simeone had said after the first leg. His team can now make a nuisance of themselves against Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and City, having wrecked Barca’s dream of becoming the first team to win the Champions League back to back.

‘It was one of the targets for this season and the players are sad,’ said Luis Enrique who had never previously lost a knockout tie as Barcelona coach. ‘Knockout’ was never a more appropriate description.

Ninety minutes can seem more like 12 rounds with Simeone’s team in the other corner and although it was Diego Godin who ended up with a black eye after an apparent elbow from his international team-mate Luis Suarez, it was Barca who over the two legs finished up battered and beaten.

They can point to a late handball from Gabi that looked inside the area and not outside as the referee saw it but Atletico deserved their late slice of luck and when they came back out onto the pitch five minutes after the full-time whistle the stadium was still full to celebrate with them.

Atletico join City, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in the semi-final, so who does Simeone want? ‘I don’t mind who we face in the final but we are not thinking about anything other than winning it,’ he said after the game.

They had only needed one goal to qualify and it came 10 minutes before the break with Jordi Alba turning with the ball at his feet down by the corner flag and playing a sloppy pass infield that Atletico’s pack of hungry wolves pounced on. It was Saul Niguez who got to the ball first and from his cross Griezmann headed past Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.

On the day that Karim Benzema had announced he would not be playing for France this summer, one of the men who will fill the gap had scored his first goal against Barcelona in an Atletico shirt.

It was the perfect time to score sending Luis Enrique’s team down the tunnel fearing the worst. As things stood they were going out. Suarez immediately clattered into Godin just before the break and as Atletico Madrid players swarmed to protest, Suarez was buffeted between Gabi and Juanfran with not a single Barcelona player in sight to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. It really did seem like they were not up for the fight.