Torres eyeing ´magical´ year for Atletico

Fernando Torres says Atletico Madrid can make their final season at the Vicente Calderon “magical” after their Champions League victory over Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Yannick Ferreira Carrasco scored the only goal of the game in the first half as Diego Simeone’s side took charge of Group D with a repeat of the result they earned in the first leg of last season’s semi-final clash.

Atletico are due to move into a new stadium for the 2017-18 campaign, and Torres is eager to mark the last year at their famous home by challenging to reach a second Champions League final in succession.

“We’re very happy with the result, it’s what we needed,” he told Fox Sports. “We knew we had to win today because it’s a tough group and we didn’t want to go to Munich on the last day of the group stage to try to qualify.

“I grew up as a kid coming to this stadium, all my memories are around here. It’s a special year for us and all the fans, a magical one. It would be a great year to do something special, to remember this as one of the best seasons in our history.”

Carrasco capitalised on some loose play by Xabi Alonso to stride into space and fire a low shot past Manuel Neuer and in off the post to give Atleti the victory.

The Belgium international was delighted to see his effort go in after twice hitting the woodwork without scoring in Atleti’s home matches this season.

“When you’re winning 1-0, it’s normal to suffer in the second half, but the important thing is that they didn’t get the goal,” he said.

“I was lucky that it hit the post and went in. It’s been post, post, post so far this season. Today it was post and in.”