Galatasaray suffered a 2-0 defeat at the Türk Telekom Arena in their opening Group B Champions League game of the season.
Hamza Hamzaoğlu started with an unusual lineup deploying centre-back Hakan Balta as a defensive midfielder with Emre Çolak in midfield and gave on-loan Manchester City defender Jason Denayer his debut – and first ever Champions League appearance.
The 4-5-1 experiment failed miserably in the opening half-an-hour and Galatasaray were caught wanting in defence as Atleti counter-attacked with ease carving up the Lions back-four.
Griezman put the Madrid based side ahead on 18 minutes with a well-place shot from just inside the penalty area.
The Frenchman doubled the away sides lead just even minutes later making the most of the Istanbul giants shambolic defending from set-pieces.
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Hamzaoğlu brought on Umut Bulut for the ineffective Emre Çolak after half-an-hour and the hard working Turkish international helped steady the ship as Galatasaray kept held of possession better.
Yasin Öztekin came on for Sabri Sarıoğlu during the half-time break. The experienced right-back gave a woeful performance in the first half and Denayer replaced him positionally with Öztekin taking up a role on the right flank.
Galatasaray performed better in the second half especially down the right-flank where Denayer and Öztekin combined well to create a few chances.
The Lions came close on a number of occasions but were unable to find a way through an assiduous Atleti defence.
Galatasaray take on Benfica next at the Türk Telekom Arena. The Portuguese giants beat Astana 2-0 in their opening game.
Galatasaray 0-2 Atletico Madrid
Stadium: Türk Telekom Arena
Referee: Szymon Marciniak, Pawel Sokolnicki, Tomasz Listkiewicz (Polonya)
Galatasaray: Muslera, Sabri Sarıoğlu (min. 46 Yasin Öztekin), Semih Kaya, Denayer, Carole, Selçuk İnan, Hakan Kadir Balta, Emre Çolak (min. 32 Umut Bulut), Sneijder, Podolski (min. 71 Sinan Gümüş), Burak Yılmaz
Atletico Madrid: Oblak, Juanfran, Gimenez, Godin, Siqueira, Tiago, Koke, Saul Niguez (min. 80 Oliver Torres), Vietto (min. 62 Gabi), Griezmann, Martinez (min. 60 Fernando Torres)
Goals: min. 18 ve 25 Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)
Yellow Cards: min. 63 Burak Yılmaz, min. 73 Yasin Öztekin (Galatasaray), min. 64 Gabi (Atletico Madrid)