{"id":1378,"date":"2026-01-22T13:19:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1378"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:19:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:19:28","slug":"atletico-frustrated-in-champions-league-draw-at-galatasaray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/atletico-frustrated-in-champions-league-draw-at-galatasaray\/","title":{"rendered":"Atletico frustrated in Champions League draw at Galatasaray"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Atletico Madrid’s hopes of earning a Champions League top eight spot at the end of the league phase were diminished by a 1-1 draw at Galatasaray on Wednesday in their penultimate fixture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the point took them provisionally eighth, the three-time runners-up may now find it tricky to progress straight to the last 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giuliano Simeone’s early goal was the perfect start for his father Diego Simeone’s team, but Marcos Llorente’s own goal left honours even in Istanbul. The Spain international made amends with a vital late interception which saved his team from falling to defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visitors Atletico dampened a lively atmosphere with their fourth-minute goal, nodded home by Giuliano from Matteo Ruggeri’s cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkish side Galatasaray pulled level after 20 minutes when Llorente bundled Roland Sallai’s cross into his own net as he tried to cut it out, denying his goalkeeper Jan Oblak a clean sheet on his 100th Champions League appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baris Yilmaz could have sent Galatasaray ahead before half-time, but skewed a shot high over the bar when well placed to convert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atletico came close to regaining their advantage just before the hour mark when Abdulkerim Bardakci cleared David Hancko’s effort off the line to safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atletico coach Simeone replaced Sorloth with French veteran Antoine Griezmann, keeping Julian Alvarez on the pitch despite his recent poor form in front of goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Argentina international has scored just once in his last 10 matches, but put in a more lively showing against Galatasaray than in some other recent appearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With five minutes remaining, Griezmann whipped a free-kick towards the top corner, but Galatasaray goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir tipped his effort away and then denied Alex Baena to preserve a point for his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galatasaray might have won it at the death, but Llorente surged in to pinch the ball from Eren Elmali as he was poised to strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draw was not overly satisfying for the Turkish outfit, away at Manchester City in their final group match next week, where they will aim to qualify for the play-off round. Atletico host Bodo\/Glimt and still have a chance of sealing a top-eight league phase spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atletico Madrid’s hopes of earning a Champions League top eight spot at the end of the league phase<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}