Bayer Leverkusen will take a slim lead into the second leg of their round-of-16 clash against Atletico Madrid after beating the La Liga champions 1-0 at the BayArena on Wednesday evening.Los Rojiblancos ended the encounter with 10 men and were strategically outdone in a meeting that revives the Factory Squad's hopes of advancing in the Champions League. ESPN FC confirmed the result:Hakan Calhanoglu struck a 57th-minute winner for the German hosts, where a piece of magic from Karim Bellarabi set the Turkish youngster up to open the scoring in sensational style.It was a drawn-out affair for Leverkusen in finding their foothold, but one could see from the early stages that Diego Simeone's men were struggling to build their usual momentum in possession.Roger Schmidt's side finished the group stage in shaky form, but none of those cobwebs were evident on Wednesday as they took the fight to their Spanish guests.Atleti forward Mario Mandzukic was forced to clear the ball off his own line in the first period, leading German writer Cristian Nyari to hail the former Bayern Munich man as a terrific defender among players in his position:And Leverkusen's assault didn't stop there, either, with the underdogs in no way content to give Atletico Madrid any bit of respect.Emir Spahic teased the home fans by thudding the crossbar after 25 minutes, an effort that ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan described as unstoppable:As the game wore on, Lars Bender and Gonzalo Castro began to assert their dominance in the middle of the park, one area in which a lot of the fixture's weight was being decided.Squawka showed just how Atleti were lacking their usual fluidity at the halfway mark, with both teams going in scoreless:However, it didn't take long for Calhanoglu to capitalise on some fine build-up play from Bellarabi, slamming Leverkusen into a 1-0 lead with a venomous drill from the right side of Atletico's area.Bundesliga writer Clark Whitney praised the youngster in how far he's come over the past year:Atleti may have held some hopes of pulling level even at full strength, but it appeared all those hopes were lost when Tiago received a second caution on the 75-minute mark.David Cartlidge of beIN Sports lambasted the midfielder's error:The result gives Leverkusen a considerable advantage heading to the Vicente Calderon, and Schmidt will consider it a grand achievement to have not conceded against Simeone's side.The second leg now places a responsibility upon the Spaniards to bounce back in front of a home audience, although centre-back Diego Godin will be missing from the lineup, per Corrigan:Player GradesEmir Spahic: AA clean sheet against Atletico Madrid is no easy thing to come by, but a stingy performance from Leverkusen centre-back Spahic was enough to hold off Simeone's attacking giants, per Football Radar's William Abbs:As well as winning six aerial duels, Spahic also impressed after coming close to scoring from range for the hosts.Tiago: DAtleti's midfield was struggling to mount any sort of dominance in midfield for the majority of Wednesday's fixture, but the second-half sending off of Tiago merely condemned the Spaniards further.Prior to being sent off, Tiago had managed to complete only 23 passes in what will go down as an out-of-character day for the La Liga giants, during which retaining possession seemed a near impossibility.Hakan Calhanoglu: A-Calhanoglu was in the mood to make a difference in front of goal on Wednesday and registered more shots on target (four) than any other player at the BayArena.His powered finished early in the second period was the standout moment of his performance, a strike which OptaFranz shows came against a stiff opponent:All statistics come courtesy of WhoScored.Post-Match ReactionIn the wake of Wednesday's defeat, Simeone accepted that his side came off second-best in Leverkusen, but the Argentine was eager to enforce that things could have ended worse for Atleti.Per Inside Spanish Football, he stated he was "satisfied" with the 1-0 deficit heading back to the Spanish capital:"Its been a rare game. Neither side created many goalscoring opportunities. We managed it at the end of the first half and they did in the second. Ill leave satisfied, having had to make two changes in the first half, having a goal ruled out, and only losing 1-0. It could have been worse but it wasnt."However, Corrigan doesn't look on the score as brightly as the Atletico chief, noting that things don't look hopeful for Los Rojiblancos:Schmidt, on the other hand, has more reason to be content with the score and is quoted by the official Champions League Twitter account as saying it would be a "dream" to advance:Spanish writer Sergi Dominguez even goes as far as to label the German as being among a new breed of coaches to watch out for:Read more World Football news on BleacherReport.com
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