Atletico Madrid advance to quarterfinals after Bayer Leverkusen crumble in shootout

The first penalty shootout of the Champions League was required Tuesday and saw last season's finalists Atletico Madrid book their place in the quarterfinals after Bayer Leverkusen failed miserably from the spot.

Here's what you need to know:

• After an opening 23 minutes where neither side produced much in the way of threatening opportunities, Atleti 'keeper Moya was forced to exit the match with an apparent hamstring injury suffered by simply collecting the ball in awkward fashion. He was replaced by Jan Oblak.
• Atletico Madrid 1, Bayer Leverkusen 0: Diego Simeone's side finally found the back of the net and levelled the score 1-1 on aggregate in the 27th minute. Leverkusen had done a solid job of defending a free kick, but a series of subsequent headers saw the ball fall to Mario Suarez, who proceeded to blast a 20-yard shot past Bernd Leno after it took a deflection off defender Omer Toprak.

• Atleti nearly doubled their lead moments later when Arda Turan played a phenomenal pass to Mario Mandzukic, but the Croatian forward was unable to make anything of the chance.
• Having failed to be much of a scoring threat throughout the match, Leverkusen's Josip Drmic was replaced by Stefan Kiessling in the 70th minute.
• A second half marred by fouls saw Atleti once again come close to doubling their lead in the 70th minute, when Koke curled a dangerous free kick into the box, to which Kiessling got a faint touch before the ball bounced just wide of the far post.
• The substitution many supporters had been waiting for finally happened in the 83rd minute when Fernando Torres came on for Manduzkic.
• Late pressure from Atleti, which included a number of set pieces, failed to generate anything, forcing the far-from-gripping fixture into extra time.

• Two periods of extra time failed to produce any decent chances - despite Atleti being awarded free kick after free kick - and a penalty shootout was required to determine what side would progress to the quarterfinals.

• A shootout was likely the scenario Leverkusen were striving for given Leno's save percentages.

• Both Atleti and Leverkusen missed their first penalties as Raul Garcia launched his shot over the crossbar while Hakan Calhanoglu blasted his shot straight at a static Toprak.
• Toprak, who was Leverkusen's third shooter, handed Atleti the advantage by also firing his penalty over the crossbar.
• Atleti's advantage was immediately lost, however, as Koke then saw his low shot stopped by Leno.
• With one penalty remaining for each side, Torres delivered a well-placed penalty to give Simeone's squad the lead before Kiessling became the second Leverkusen player to shoot over the crossbar, booking Atleti's place in the quarterfinals in remarkable fashion.

[Courtesy: Sportsnet]