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Julian Alvarez scored in the 90th minute as his brace helped Atletico Madrid to a 2-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League as both sides finished with 10 men.
Summer signing Alvarez helped Diego Simeone’s men come from a goal down as Pablo Barrios and Piero Hincapie were sent off on Tuesday evening.
Hincapie’s header put Xabi Alonso’s Bundesliga champions ahead, but the defender went from hero to villain when he was given his marching orders in the 76th minute.
Alvarez’s last-minute goal saw the hosts claim their fourth straight European victory.
Leverkusen’s tails were up from the get-go and had a goal disallowed for offside after a well-worked move. Granit Xhaka found surging wing-back Alejandro Grimaldo in space and after his ball to Nathan Tella was turned in at the back post, the winger was deemed to have gone too early as the scores remained goalless.
But the tide fully turned in the visitors’ favour after 25 minutes when Barrios was shown red. The midfielder was on the wrong side of Exequiel Palacios and in a desperate bid to retrieve the ball, a clumsy studs-up lunge on his calf resulted in his yellow card being upgraded by VAR as Atleti were reduced to 10 men.
The German side made full use of the extra man as they went into the break with a 1-0 lead. Nordi Mukiele retrieved the ball on the right-hand side in the Atleti half, producing a lofted cross to the back post where Hincapie was well-positioned to guide a header across the goal and past Jan Oblak into the bottom right corner.
After Alvarez showed composure and blistering pace to counter-attack and equalise in the 52nd minute, Hincapie was dismissed for a second yellow.
And Argentina forward Alvarez had the decisive final say when he rounded the keeper to tap home the winner.
