Atletico and Barcelona strut their stuff in Europe

Atletico Madrid 1-0 FC Bayern Munich

Holding up an impressive mosaic which read 'Bring joy to my heart', the home fans at the Vicente Calderon gave the Champions League a warm welcome. Inspired by the rousing reception from their fans, the Rojiblancos were outstanding in the first half and kept Bayern on the ropes.

Fernando Torres, on his return to the starting line-up, was one of the players who threatened most early on, although Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco stole the show on 35 minutes. The Belgian, exhibiting his usual speed, found a gap in the opposition's defence to fire in a shot across goal which beat Manuel Neuer at his left-hand post. That was it for the first period and Atletico went in 1-0 up at the break.

There was plenty of excitement in the second half as Atletico looked to extend their advantage and Bayern fought to turn the game around. As the clock ticked down on this thrilling encounter, Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben carved out two chances to level, and Antoine Griezmann sent a penalty kick crashing off the crossbar. Despite that, the points stayed in Madrid.

VfL Borussia Monchengladbach 1-2 FC Barcelona

Luis Enrique's charges made an extremely lively start to the match, creating no fewer than three openings in the early exchanges. Luis Suarez went closest, shaking off a defender in the heart of the box and then unleashing a volley that swerved just wide of the top corner.

However, Barcelona were punished for failing to make the most of their opportunities as the Germans took the lead against the run of play at Borussia-Park. A lightning break in the 34th minute was finished off by Thorgan Hazard and Monchengladbach managed to close out the first half on top.

The Catalans came out after the interval clearly believing that they could pull off a comeback and they proceeded to do just that, piling on the pressure until the scales tipped in their favour. Arda Turan began the turnaround with a 67th-minute equaliser, latching on to Neymar's lovely dinked pass and lashing a right-footed strike past Yann Sommer and into the roof of the net. With the hosts' resistance broken, Gerard Pique bundled home the winner from a corner with a quarter of an hour to go, after Sommer had spilled what should have been a routine save.