Atletico Madrid 3-1 Slovan Bratislava: Griezmann double helps hosts close in on top eight

Antoine Griezmann scored twice as Atletico Madrid claimed a comfortable 3-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League.

The Spanish side have now won each of their last 10 matches in all competitions as they closed in on the automatic qualification spots.

Julian Alvarez opened the scoring for Atletico with a well-taken strike, curling his shot into the top-right corner past Dominik Takac after just 16 minutes.

Slovan almost caused an upset against the run of play shortly after as Tigran Barseghyan caught out Jan Oblak with a floated effort, but struck the top of the crossbar.

Atletico continued to dominate in the first half and got their reward as Griezmann scored for the fifth successive match with a thumping header just before the break.

The visitors briefly got back into the match to pull it back to 2-1 when Davis Strelec earned a penalty and converted himself from 12 yards, but Griezmann restored the two-goal cushion six minutes later with a simple finish at the near post.

Atletico moved up to 10th with 12 points from six matches, while Slovan are rooted to the bottom of the 36-team table having lost all six games and they cannot make the playoffs.

36 – @AntoGriezmann has scored 36 goals in 79 appearances for @atletienglish in the #UCL, all under Diego Pablo Simeone. Only Messi under Pep Guardiola (43) and Salah under Jürgen Klopp (41) have scored more goals under the same manager in the competition. Usual. pic.twitter.com/pWSn21g9ou

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) December 11, 2024

Data Debrief: Atletico’s winning run goes on

After a poor start to the Champions League that saw Atletico lose two of their first three games, they have since turned things around by winning the following three in the competition.

But it is not just in Europe where they are flying high as they have now scored 30 goals during their 10-match winning run.

Since the start of last season, no team have won more home matches in the Champions League than Atletico (W7 L1), and have scored at least two goals in all of those home victories.

Among teams who have scored 100+ goals in the Champions League, only Lionel Messi (20.4% for Barcelona) has scored a higher percentage of a club’s goals in the competition than Griezmann has for Atletico (19% – 36 of 189).