European Champions League

Atlético Madrid 4 – Astana 0

Atlético: Oblak; Juanfran, Savic, Godín, Siquiera; Saúl Ñíguez, Gabi, Tiago (Oliver Torres 46‘), Carrasco; Griezmann (Correa 58’), Jackson Martínez (Fernando Torres 67’). 4-4-2.
Astana: Nenad Eric; Beysebekov, Postnikov, Dedechko, Ilic, Akhmetov; Schetkin (Kulbekov 80’), Muzhikov (Kozhamberdy 83’), Zhukov (Pikalkin 64’), Foxi Kéthévoama; Junior Kabananga. 5-4-1.

Goals:
1-0. 23. Saúl. Got on the end of Carrasco cross to turn ball in with back of heel.
2-0. 29. Jackson Martínez. Shot on turn which deflected into net off Dedechko.
3-0. 63. Oliver Torres. Ran on to Gabi through ball and lifted shot past keeper.
4-0. 89. Dedechko (own goal). Slid ball into net trying to clear Juanfran cross.

Atlético Madrid finished week three at the top of their group, ahead of Benfica on goal difference, after a comfortable 4-0 victory over Astana on Wednesday evening. Their opponents were the first team from Kazakhstan to reach the group stage, and they made the long journey to Spain with a reduced squad of only 15 players, without much hope of success. Kabanaga did try to catch Oblak off his line with a long shot early on however, but Eric had to be at his best to keep out headers from Godín and Griezmann, and midway through the first half Saúl Ñíguez opened the scoring with a clever back-heel after Carrasco crossed in from the right. Soon afterwards Jackson Martínez had a strike disallowed for the positional offside of Griezmann, but with half an hour gone he finally netted his first goal in the Calderón stadium, his shot on the turn taking a deflection off Dedechko to wrong foot the keeper. Eric did save from Jackson and Carrasco either side of half time, but some twenty minutes in to the second half Gabi put Oliver Torres through for him to chip a shot into the net. Oblak finally had to make a couple of saves from Foxi later on, and with the game coming to an end the unfortunate Dedechko slid the ball into his own net trying to prevent a Juanfran cross from reaching Fernando Torres.