Club Brugge reach knockouts after 0-0 draw with misfiring Atletico

MADRID: Belgian side Club Brugge reached the Champions League knockouts after a 0-0 draw against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday (Oct 12) guaranteed them a top-two spot in Group B.

After becoming the first Belgian side to win their opening three group games last week, Brugge reached the round of 16 in Europe's elite club competition for the first time since 1990-91, when it was known as the European Cup.

Atletico squandered a string of chances as they extended their winless streak in the competition to three games.

The Spanish side are second on four points, six behind the Belgians and one ahead Porto and Bayer Leverkusen, who have a game in hand and will play each other later on Wednesday.

Atletico now will face two must-win games against Leverkusen and Porto to stay alive in the competition.

Brugge were lively in the first half but ran out of steam after the break and then held on in the closing stages as Atletico tried in vain to open up the visitors, who had Kamal Sowah sent-off late on.

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was named player of the match after he made a series of stops in the second half, including two close-range saves in added time to deny Alvaro Morata.

"This is a dream! We fought until the end and we finally did it," Mignolet told UEFA's website.

"In previous years, it just didn't work out for us. We felt this year would be different – and now qualification is ours.

"But our story doesn’t end here: let’s see how far we can go."

Atletico manager Diego Simeone left star Portuguese forward Joao Felix on the bench for the entire 90 minutes.

The Argentinian manager instead opted to start Antoine Griezmann and Angel Correa up-front, bringing Morata and Matheus Cunha on from the bench later on.

But Brugge