A sensational recovery by the 10 men of Atlético Madrid broke Bayer Leverkusen's 11-game winning streak in all competitions, recovering from going behind at home to record a 2-1 UCL victory and move the German champions aside into third place.
A fevered pre-match atmosphere in the Spanish capital proved short-lived as it was the away side in charge in the first period.
That was a let-off for Vitoria's men as the Die Werkself added another with Florian Wirtz and Nathan Tella denied by Jan Oblak; the latter's strike was also ruled out for an offside infringement in the build-up.
But it got worse for Atleti as Pablo Barrios received his marching orders after the 25th-minute mark when he received his second yellow card, having been reviewed for giving a high challenge to Nordi Mukiele.
Xabi Alonso's men shocked many within the first minute of added time as Piero Hincapie scored with a header on the back post from Mukiele's cross to give Leverkusen an advantage at halftime.
In the later stages of the game, Alonso brought in Patrik Schick, his team's main striker, to replace Mukiele, the wing-back. This time the substitutions went against him, and seven minutes from the end of the second half, the home side leveled the game, leaving everyone who witnessed the turnaround stunned.
Antoine Griezmann instantly played a long ball ahead, and Julián Alvarez raced to it. He made a successful run past Jonathan Tah, who was starting to look labored, and got to the ball before Alejandro Grimaldo to make a weak shot past Matěj Kovář into the bottom corner.
Suddenly, Atlético were ahead, and following a pause in the game, Leverkusen lost their numerical advantage when Hincapié received a second yellow for clattering Giuliano Simeone with a rough foul.
Die Werkself seemed to lose all control in the match, and screaming home fans were seemingly pleased with the mess on the pitch through both senior and junior Simeone.
With Leverkusen rattled, the direction of the winning goal looked likely from that moment—and it would then come because, indeed, Alvarez was found by Angel Correa, and he rounded Kovar before slotting in to extend the unbeaten run during home H2Hs to six matches.