Atletico Madrid 5-2 Tottenham: Kinsky´s nightmare Champions League debut gives Tudor´s team work to

Antonin Kinsky endured a Champions League debut to forget as his two errors saw Tottenham lose 5-2 in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie with Atletico Madrid.

Kinsky made two mistakes and conceded three goals in the opening 15 minutes at the Metropolitano, before being substituted for Guglielmo Vicario just two minutes later.

But even with Vicario in between the sticks, Spurs were unable to recover from the early damage, leaving them with a mountain to climb in next week’s second leg on home soil.

Igor Tudor’s side found themselves behind in the sixth minute when an untimely slip from Kinsky as he went to clear the ball saw Julian Alvarez pick up possession, with the Argentine teeing up Marcos Llorente to strike into the bottom-left corner.

Antoine Griezmann’s 14th-minute finish doubled Atletico’s advantage, and Kinsky’s miserable outing was completed less than a minute later when he miskicked a simple pass meant for Kevin Danso straight to Alvarez, who walked the ball into the net.

Kinsky was then replaced by Vicario, who was picking the ball out of the net five minutes after coming on when Robin Le Normand saw his header narrowly cross the line.

Spurs responded four minutes later through Pedro Porro’s well-taken effort, with returning captain Cristian Romero heading against the post from a corner just before the break.

But Alvarez was able to restore his side’s four-goal advantage 10 minutes after the restart after being sent through by Griezmann’s clever touch, taking his time to place past Vicario just moments after Jan Oblak had kept out Richarlison’s header.

However, Spurs got the goal their second-half performance merited 14 minutes from time. This time Oblak’s wayward pass was intercepted by Porro, who set up substitute Dominic Solanke to rifle the ball in at the near post and conclude the scoring in Madrid.

Big win at home pic.twitter.com/B5DM0UdIQg

— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) March 10, 2026

Data Debrief: Alvarez leads the way for rampant Atletico

Atletico have progressed from two of their three previous Champions League last 16 ties against English clubs, and they will be confident of doing the same again here after ruthlessly punishing Spurs’ error-strewn first-half display.

They netted four goals in the first half of a Champions League match for the first time in their history, becoming only the second Spanish team to achieve this in a knockout match, after rivals Barcelona.

And they were led by the impressive Alvarez, who, since his debut in the Champions League in 2022, is one of only five players to record 30+ goal involvements after Kylian Mbappe (40), Vinicius Junior (39), Harry Kane (36) and Erling Haaland (35), with the Atletico number 19 now on 30.

For Spurs, meanwhile, they have now lost six consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time in their history, though they could have no complaints about their defeat here, having registered an expected goals (xG) total of 1.41 from their 11 shots to Atletico’s 3.12 from the same number of attempts.