Galatasaray vs Atletico Madrid Betting Tips

Galatasaray have made an awful start to the season in Turkey. They’ve won just 1 of their opening 4 Super Liga matches and their home games so far have resulted in a 2-1 defeat to Osmanlıspor and a 1-1 draw with Mersin İdmanyurdu at the weekend. That’s hardly the ideal preparation for the visit of a side of the quality of Atletico, who have spent big and been fairly impressive in the opening weeks.

The Turks always used to be very strong at home in Europe but took just 1 point from their home group game matches in last season’s Champions League, which included a 4-0 thumping by Borussia Dortmund and a 4-1 loss to Arsenal. The last Spanish side to visit was Real Madrid, who won 6-1 at Türk Telekom Arena in 2013 so there are plenty of reasons to think Atletico can win this.

The side from the Spanish capital have to again be considered darkhorses to go far in the tournament and this is the first time they approach it, having really invested in their squad.

Atletico were impressive throughout pre-season and won their opening two La Liga games including an excellent 3-0 away win at fellow Champions League participants Sevilla. They were beaten 2-1 by Barcelona on Saturday, which is certainly no disgrace and they will still take plenty of confidence with them to Turkey and will strongly believe they can win against an out-of-sorts Galatasaray side. They look worth a bet at 8/11 to do just that.

The Spaniards are often quite cautious in Europe, especially on the road though so a repeat of the heavy wins, foreign clubs have achieved here in the past two seasons is unlikely. There have only been 3 goals in the past 5 Champions League matches involving Atletico Madrid but with a very solid defence spearheaded by Diego Godin, you can certainly see them keeping a clean sheet.

They have enough quality to cause Galatasaray a fair few problems at the other end, but unlike the likes of Arsenal and Real Madrid, they’ll be content to sit on the lead should they get it and look for opportunities to break.

With the pace of Jackson Martinez, Antoine Griezmann and a leaner looking Fernando Torres, they could well get a few chances late on to grab a 2nd goal that would seal the game so consider taking a punt on Atletico to win 2-0 at 11/2.