Atletico Madrid 2-1 Real Madrid (2-4 aggregate): 5 Talking Points, UEFA Champions League 2016-17 Semifinal

3. Antoine Griezmann continues to be the “nearly man” of European football

Atletico’s talisman must surely have thought it was all behind him. Losing CL finalist twice to Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid, Losing Euros finalist to Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal, pipped to every material end-of-the-season award by that man – he must have thought that 2017 would bring him new, better, tidings. Unfortunately, his form throughout has mirrored his team’s incredibly disappointing one. He disappeared along with everyone else in the first leg and he was much better on the night this time around, he simply couldn’t do enough. Even that penalty he struck should in all seriousness have been saved by Keylor Navas... a stronger hand and that shot wasn’t struck so hard that he could have prevented it going in.

All the match proved, once again, was that the young sensation still has quite the way to go before he can even hope of challenging either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.

Meanwhile, Fernando Torres put up an excellent showing in an Andy Carroll-esque bruising centre-forward role (that penalty award was all down to El Nino’s sheer power) and was looking like he would give Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos a night to forget before that unseemly malaise that has affected Atletico this season simply overwhelmed everyone in rojiblanco stripes.

Yannick Carrasco looked Atleti’s most dangerous player moving forward (he created 4 rather good chances), but it was all to be too little, too late.