A SOBBING Luis Suarez was forced off injured just 13 minutes into Atletico Madrid’s crucial Champions League clash with Porto.
And the 34-year-old striker missed an absolute barnstormer as his side emerged 3-1 winners on a dramatic night at the Estadio do Dragao.
Suarez appeared to aggravate an existing knock early on and was reduced to tears as he retreated to the bench.
But he was soon left open-mouthed along with the rest of the stadium by events unfolding before him.
Both teams went into the must-win clash with a chance to qualify for the knock-out stages as Group B runners-up.
Suarez’s injury was the only noteworthy drama of a tense first-half before the game caught fire after the break.
Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring for the visitors with a tap in from a Thomas Lemar corner.
That was followed was a chaotic flurry of red cards as ref Clement Turpin sent off THREE players.
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First Atletico’s Yannick Carrasco was dismissed for raising his hands to Otavio.
He was soon followed off by Porto’s Wendell after a coming together with Suarez’s replacement Matheus Cunha.
And the hosts were soon down to nine men when keeper Agustin Marchesin was sent off in as angry team-mates protested Wendell’s red.
Three dismissals in under ten minutes would seem like drama enough in most games, but there was more to come.
A trio of stoppage-time goals made for a frantic ending as Atletico increased their lead thanks to Angel Correa and Rodrigo De Paul.
That made it 3-0 with seconds to play but nine-man Porto grabbed a consolation via a Sergio Oliveira penalty.
The result saw Atletico go through to the knock-out phase behind Liverpool, who became the first English team ever to win all of their group games in the competition with victory over AC Milan.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk