Advantage Atletico

Antoine Griezmann was among the scorers for Atletico Madrid as they weathered a late storm against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday to claim a 4-2 victory in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Saul Niguez and Griezmann put the Spanish side two goals up at the interval, but Leverkusen pulled one back through Karim Bellarabi at the start of the second half.

A Kevin Gameiro penalty then restored Atletico's two-goal advantage just before the hour mark, and while a Stefan Savic own goal gave Leverkusen hope again, Fernando Torres came off the bench to make it 4-2 late on.

"It was a brilliant game for us, and the result could have been even better," said Atletico coach Diego Simeone. "We were almost perfect in the first half."

The home side put in a brave performance and came close to equalising in the last 10 minutes, but Torres's late goal sealed a deserved victory for the visitors ahead of the return in Spain next month.

Leverkusen started brightly, while Atletico looked to hit them on the break.

In the 17th minute, the away side pounced. Cutting in from the right, Saul Niguez curled a fine shot into the far corner from the edge of the penalty area.

Atletico then grasped the game by the scruff of the neck and in the 25th minute a mistake by Aleksandar Dragovic allowed Gameiro to run at goal before squaring the ball to Griezmann, who rifled a shot past Bernd Leno.