4 stats: Atleti crash out of Europe against Porto

Atletico Madrid are out of European action for the 2022/23 campaign after crashing to an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at Porto in the Champions League.

Needing only to match Bayer Leverkusen’s result against Club Brugge on the final day, they failed to do so. Jan Oblak’s string of excellent saves kept the scoreline from looking worse.

Here are four stats from the game.

3: Number of times Atlético have conceded two goals more quickly than against Porto

Only a handful of times in Atlético de Madrid’s Champions League history have the Colchoneros conceded two goals quicker than on this occasion.

With everything at stake, Atlético crumbled only days after conceding inside 30 seconds against Cádiz. Porto scored two goals in 24 minutes on Tuesday — the same side struck twice within 14 minutes against Atleti in 2009, and Liverpool did the same in both group stage meetings last season, after 13 and 21 minutes.

The last time Atleti conceded the opening goal so early, as Mehdi Taremi scored on 4 minutes, 51 seconds, was on 8th December 2009, when Bruno Alves scored for Porto.

18%: Duels won by Atletico Madrid in the first 10 minutes

As if the goals alone weren’t enough, Atlético made it clear that the tie was over all on their own. Atlético allowed Porto to dominate all over the park by winning just 18% of duels in the opening 10 minutes,

Over the full 90 minutes, that figure did improve to 47%. But after such a poor start, Atlético were already operating firmly on the back foot and with a two-goal deficit. It was too little too late, much like the European campaign as a whole.

Recognition must go to Axel Witsel, who won 11 of his 14 duels, while questions will also be asked of substitute Yannick Carrasco, who just just 3 out of 10.

Photo by Diogo Cardoso/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

4: Games without a goal for either João Félix or Antoine Griezmann when they start together

The last four matches with this forward pair starting together have seen Atlético lose three and draw one, with neither registering a goal or even an assist.

Their last start together was in the Derbi Madrileño against Real Madrid, when Atleti were again lethargic, disappointing and blunt in attack. Yet again, they disappointed in Portugal, despite having shown such promising signs last season.

2011: The last time Atlético were out of European competition by Christmas

This is the first time that Diego Simeone has ever failed to secure qualification to any European competition after the initial group stage. It’s worse even than in 2017/18, when Atleti failed to qualify from the Champions League group and were knocked down to the Europa League, although that campaign was salvaged by victory in the secondary competition.

This time around, there will be no such opportunity. Atleti are out entirely, meaning a huge blow not only in terms of reputation, but also to finances. Failure to reach any competition post-Christmas will have huge ramifications.

What this means for some of the highly-paid superstars who have let the team down remains to be seen.