Barcelona stunned at fortress Atletico

Holders Barcelona crashed out of the Champions League after being stifled by a brilliantly well-organised Atletico Madrid and undone by two goals from Antoine Griezmann in a 2-0 quarter-final second-leg defeat on Wednesday.

Griezmann headed home Saul Niguez's exquisite cross to give the home side the lead in the 36th minute and provide them with a platform from which they comfortably contained their uncharacteristically limp opponents to seal a 3-2 aggregate win.

The France forward scored again from the penalty spot with two minutes remaining, following a handball from Andres Iniesta, to complete a 3-2 aggregate victory that eliminated Barca at the quarter-final stage for the second time in three seasons. Barcelona, who were bidding to become the first team to retain the Champions League, seem to have run out of steam at the end of the season, having won just one of their last five matches.

They have not looked the same side since their 39-game unbeaten run ended at the start of the month and they came into the Wednesday's match on the back of a 1-0 defeat at Real Sociedad.

"I congratulate Atletico Madrid, they were better than us,” Barca coach Luis Enrique told reporters.

“We had control without creating much danger. The team wanted to retain the title, the fans did too, but today it was not to be. We are sad, of course.”

The Atletico supporters created a fervent atmosphere and the noise at kick-off spurred the hosts into a strong start, with Gabi blazing over and Yannick Carrasco and Griezmann testing Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Atletico took the lead in the tie on away goals when Saul carved out a cross with the outside of his boot towards Griezmann who headed into the top corner.

"We never stopped believing, we never give up what we want to do,” Atletico coach Diego Simeone said.

"It was lovely to watch from the touchline. These moments won’t come back because they are unique in football. After Griezmann doubled the lead from the spot, Barcelona still had two minutes plus stoppage time to find a goal that would have forced extra time and Lionel Messi nearly conjured a late leveller but sent a free kick over the bar.

“We were playing against one of the best teams in the world and we did ourselves proud, now we’re in the semi finals, among the top four teams in Europe,” Griezmann said.

“Our fans support us in every home game and push us to produce performances like tonight's. This game belongs to them too."

Struggling Messi on his longest run without scoring in SIX YEARS!

The 28-year-old made it five games without a goal as he once again failed to find the net in the Champions League quarter-final second leg defeat to Atletico Madrid

It's not often you associate goal droughts with Lionel Messi but that is exactly what the Barcelona superstar is going through at the moment, with it now being five games since he found the back of the net.

The Argentine forward was kept at bay by Atletico Madrid for the second time in just over a week on Wednesday, as Messi once again failed to find a way past Jan Oblak in the Champions League quarter-final.

Messi's barren run now stands at 452 minutes, with his last goal for his club having come against Arsenal on March 16 - and it's six years since the 28-year-old went through a similar spell without a goal...!

Origi forced to wear a bigger Liverpool shirt because of muscle increase

The 20-year-old has reaped the benefits of a weight training programme since moving to Anfield - but must now wear a bigger kit

Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Divock Origi needs to wear a bigger Liverpool kit after the striker put on five kilograms of muscle.

The 20-year-old has made 27 appearances for Liverpool this season and has scored three goals in his last two appearances.

But in order to adjust to the Premier League’s physicality, Origi, who was signed from Lille, has been placed on a weight training programme since the start of the season.

“You see what confidence does. I think Divock said himself, when he came here everything was different for him,” said Klopp.

“He is still a very young player and coming here, he knows everybody’s expectations are very high because he is a highly-rated striker. He had a lot of little injuries. When I came here he was not fit and afterwards he had one or two small things.

“Now the most important thing for him is to stay fit. In the last injury, he used it for a little bit of body strength as everyone can see. Now he has to wear another shirt and another kit!

“I’m not sure if it was five kilos [of muscle], but it was a little bit more. If he’d done the same training, nothing would happen – you need to be a talent and he is that, obviously. He is in a good way.

“He sees it the same way – he is on his way, he is at the start and now we have to work together.”

Ronaldo sets TWO new Champions League records

The Portugal international hit his third-hat-trick of this season's competition to fire Real Madrid past Wolfsburg and into the semi-finals

Who said Cristiano Ronaldo was past his best?

The Portugal international rode to Real Madrid's rescue once again as his hat-trick secured a 3-2 victory over Wolfsburg to fire the Spanish club into the Champions League semi-finals.

Zinedine Zidane's men trailed following a shock 2-0 defeat in Germany but Ronaldo struck three times to pull Madrid through.

And in the process, the 31-year-old set two new Champions League records.

He his hat-trick was his third in the competition this season - no other player can match that - nor can anyone else say they have scored 15 or more goals in the Champions League in two different campaigns.

The West Ham manager believes his side are favourites to progress from the last-four cup tie against Louis van Gaal's side on Wednesday

Slaven Bilic has hailed Wayne Rooney as the "best" English player he has ever seen, and hopes the Manchester United striker remains on the sidelines for their upcoming FA Cup clash

West Ham face United in the semi-finals of the competition on Wednesday, bidding to claim their first final berth since the infamous penalty shoot-out defeat to Liverpool in 2006.

England captain Rooney has been sidelined since the 2-1 away defeat to Sunderland in April, however, he made an appearance for the under-21 side on Monday as part of his rehabilitation.

Bilic has huge respect for United's centre forward but says he does not want to see Rooney make a surprise comeback against the Hammers.

"I’m a massive Rooney fan since he stepped on to the pitch in an Everton shirt,” Bilic told reporters.

"I can’t talk about Jimmy Greaves or Bobby Charlton or Bobby Moore, but in my era Rooney is the best English player.

"I would rather he didn’t play tomorrow night. 70 per cent, 100 per cent fit, I would rather he watched the game."

The Croatian manager believes his side are the more likely of the two sides to progress to the Wembley showdown and revealed he often receives betting odds from club co-owner David Sullivan.

"The chairman emails me sometimes the odds and basically very few times were we favourites, every away game, no matter who we play we are underdogs," said Bilic.

"At home we are slight favourites, but when it comes to Man United I don't know. I don’t gamble so I don’t know a lot about it.

"For me it is easy to say it is not important who is favourites because it is a game of football but I can say ‘yes, tomorrow night I expect us to win and I think we have a good chance to beat them’."

The Real Madrid attacker brought his side back from the brink of elimination on Tuesday and insists he is still playing at a high level, having netted 46 goals this year

Cristiano Ronaldo hit back at his critics after his hat-trick pulled Real Madrid from behind to beat Wolfsburg 3-2 on aggregate and secure a place in the Champions League semi-finals.

The Spanish side were well beaten in Germany last week and faced an uphill challenge on Tuesday as they trailed 2-0 heading into the second-leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Ronaldo spectacularly overturned the deficit with a treble, firing home twice in the space of 90 seconds to level the tie just 17 minutes in before he settled matters with a superb chipped free-kick near the end of the game.

And the Portuguese attacker, who has scored 46 goals in 42 La Liga and Champions League games this term, insists that despite the criticism he has faced, his statistics show he is having a fantastic year.

"Considering this has been a 'bad' season for me it has not been that bad," he told reporters. "People can criticise me but I just keep in going and the numbers are there for all to see.

"Just because I have scored three goals does not mean it's my best game. People know that I always give the maximum. The numbers do not lie.

"I will always try to help the team. The goals are in my DNA, but the important thing was the team.

"We knew we had to score three or more goals. It was an intense match, we controlled the game. We were more intense and had more opportunities. We were the better team.

"It was a perfect night. I said it would be a magical night and it was what happened.

"The fans supported us and gave us a lot of strength to win a match that was complicated."

Asked if he would prefer to face Barcelona or Atletico Madrid - who meet in their second-leg clash on Wednesday - in the last four, Ronaldo replied: "It is complicated. Atletico is the better defensive team, difficult to score goals against.

"Barca is at this time the best team in Europe. Both are very complicated. I would prefer Benfica, a Portuguese team."