Atletico Madrid squandered a possibility to cement their place within the prime eight of the Champions League after a 1-1 draw with Galatasaray.
The purpose leaves Diego Simeone’s facet on 13 factors in eighth forward of the latter portion of Wednesday’s motion, and the ultimate matchday subsequent week, although they might have been degree on factors with second-place Actual Madrid.
It was a quick begin from Atleti, which noticed Julian Alvaraz hit the side-netting earlier than Giovanni Simeone headed dwelling from Matteo Ruggeri’s cross from the left wing to offer the guests an early lead.
Nonetheless, Galatasaray equalised within the twentieth minute after a second of insanity from Marcos Llorente. The precise-back turned a low cross from Roland Sallai into his personal internet, regardless of being underneath no strain from the opposition within the six-yard field.
Atleti dominated after the break, however struggled to discover a well past Ugurcan Cakir. Alvarez noticed an try from contained in the field blocked earlier than Giovanni Simeone’s centre throughout the face of objective was simply out of attain of Alexander Sorloth.
David Hancko noticed an effort cleared off the road by Abdulkerim Bardakci simply earlier than the hour mark, whereas Antoine Griezmann’s free-kick late on was tipped across the submit by the goalkeeper because the guests settled for a draw.
Qarabag, in the meantime, took an enormous step in direction of reaching the playoff rounds after Bahlul Mustafazada’s 94th-minute winner noticed them defeat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 in an end-to-end thriller in Baku.
7 – Julián Alvarez hasn’t scored in his final seven video games in all competitions, his worst run since his arrival to @atletienglish. Blocked. pic.twitter.com/EYSA0oZ5er
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) January 21, 2026
Information Debrief: Frustration for Atleti
Simeone would have been left questioning how his facet didn’t depart Rams Park with three factors. They produced 1.43 anticipated objectives (xG) from 15 photographs to Galatasaray’s 0.5 from seven makes an attempt, with solely two of these coming within the second half.
Alvarez registered probably the most photographs of any participant (4), however did not beat Cakir. He has not scored in his final seven video games in all competitions, which is his worst run since his arrival within the Spanish capital.
Oblak, in the meantime, is the fifth participant to make 100+ appearances within the Champions League underneath the identical supervisor after Koke (additionally underneath Diego Simeone), Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville (all underneath Alex Ferguson).