Atletico Madrid 2-1 Espanyol: Diego Simeone’s men earn dramatic win to boost Champions League hopes

Atletico Madrid scored in the 100th minute to beat Espanyol 2-1 and improve their chances of making it back into the Champions League next season.

Diego Simeone’s side must concentrate on qualifying for the competition they were knocked out of last week by Manchester City and the late goal they could not find against Pep Guardiola’s side did come for them this time.

Ninety-nine minutes had already been played with the score at 1-1 and Atletico down to 10-men when Yannick Carrasco got past Fernando Calero on the byline and saw his shot pushed out for a corner by Diego Lopez. 

 Yannick Carrasco scored twice to earn Atletico Madrid a vital victory over Espanyol

 Atletico Madrid had Geoffrey Kondogbia sent off when they were leading 1-0

The Belgian took the resulting kick and when Raul de Tomas jumped to clear the ball he had both his arms raised. 

Replays were not clear but Referee Jorge Figueroa went across to look at the incident pitch side and decided the ball had hit his elbow. 

Up stepped Carrasco and with the last kick of the game he made it 2-1 from the spot.

Atletico had led the match after Carrasco got his first goal running on to a through ball from Matheus Cunha and shooting past Lopez just after the restart. Carrasco had been one of three changes at the break. 

Diego Simeone (right) rushed over to celebrate with his players after the late winning goal

Atletico were poor in the first 45 minutes and had gone past the five-hour mark without a goal (two 90 minutes against Manchester City and last week’s game against Mallorca).

But after Carrasco gave them the advantage things got difficult for them once more. Geoffrey Kondogbia blocked a Sergi Darder shot with his arm and was shown a second yellow card. 

The decision looked harsh as the ball seemed to rebound on to him from another part of his body but the decision stood and from the resulting free-kick Raul de Tomas scored his 15th goal of the season past Jan Oblak. 

The Atletico keeper looked to have blocked the shot but it somehow squirmed under him.

So from being one-up Atletico were now only taking a point from a game they needed to win and reduced to 10 men. 

Thomas Lemar was left in tears at the end of the second half as he suffered a muscle injury

With their supporters urging them forward in search of an epic finale it was reminiscent of midweek against Manchester City only this time the last-gasp winner did come.

It was cruel on Espanyol who lost to Atletico Madrid 2-1 earlier in the season and also from a goal scored in the 100th minute of the game.

For Atletico Madrid it means with six games left they have their fate in their own hands to finish in the top four. 

They may have to do it without Thomas Lemar however. He was in tears at the end of the second half after pulling up with a muscle injury and had to be consoled and helped off the pitch by team-mates.