Barça out of UCL after rally vs. Atlético falls short

Atlético Madrid held on after an early charge by Barcelona to reach the Champions League semifinals for the first time in nearly a decade on Tuesday.

Atlético advanced 3-2 on aggregate despite a 2-1 loss to the Catalan club. Diego Simeone's team had won the first leg 2-0 in Barcelona last week.

Barcelona, trying to return to the last four for the second season in a row, scored twice in the first 24 minutes to even the series, with Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres finding the net.

Atlético struck back still in the first half with a goal by Ademola Lookman, who finished off a nice counter-attack from a Marcos Llorente assist.

The Catalan club played a man down from the 79th after defender Eric García was shown a red card for fouling Alexander Sorloth to stop a breakaway.

Atlético last made it to the semifinals in 2017. Barcelona lost to Inter Milan in last year's semifinals.

Diego Simeone's side will face Arsenal or Sporting CP in the semifinals. Arsenal won the first leg 1-0 in Lisbon last week. Their second leg in England is on Wednesday.

In the other quarterfinal on Tuesday, Paris Saint-Germain advanced past Liverpool.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this recap.