Atlético's Avengers Drop Dortmund Madrid

After being soundly smashed and totally embarrassed in Dortmund, Diego Simeone’s side salvaged a measure of dignity in Champions League play by returning the favor in Group A's round-robin.

Their 2-0 victory may not have been as devastating as der BVB's was to them, all that really matters is they picked up the three points on offer.

Underscoring Atlético's rash of injuries, dudes entered into the fray without Koke, Diego Godin, or Diego Costa.

Simeone picked Lucas Hernández, Thomas Partey, and Nikola Kalinić as replacements until they get hurt or something.

 

Ironically, with payback on their minds, the hosts still allowed Dortmund to dictate the game's design in the first moments.

Marco Reus, for instance, attempted but couldn't solve Jan Oblak. As packed in a Atlético was, it's not hard to see why:

 

Los Rojiblancos began emerging from their all-too-traditional defensive shell around the quarter-hour and began building momentum soon afterward.

Finally, in the 33rd minute, the Spaniards finally broke through, with Saúl Ñíguez igniting the opportunity. Dude stole the ball in Dortmund’s half, combined on a one-two with Filipe Luís, and fired home past Roman Burki.

 

That opener spurred der BVB to become more aggressive, but the closest anyone got to scoring was substitute Raphaël Guerreiro, but it was not to be. Paco Alcácer found him in a threatening position, but dude headed over the woodwork.

As Dortmund continued to take chances in attempts to equalize, they finally got burned.

In the 80th minute, Antoine Griezmann wrapped the game up for Atletico. Thomas Partey got the ball on the left, created space for Griezmann to get in the box, and the Frenchman slotte home against Burki:

 

This result closed the book on who's going were in Group A.

All that's left now is to confirm seeding in the knockout phase, where Dortmund has a decided edge in goal difference:

Don't rule out Atlético going drastic on AS Monaco.

Les Rouges et Blancs have some serous off-the-pitch issues happening right now.

Club owner Dmitry Rybolovlev got nicked earlier in the day on charges of art fraud in Switzerland that had been lingering for a while.

He's the billionaire who bought Donald Trump's Florida mansion for a totally inflated $100million in cash. It drew the attention of the American special investigators and is still a pending issue.

 

So, who knows what the state of affairs will be by Tue 11 Dec?

Anywhere.