Simeone delighted with 'exceptional' Atletico Madrid

Diego Simeone praised an "exceptional" Atletico Madrid after their 2-0 Champions League victory over Galatasaray on Tuesday.

Antoine Griezmann's double early in the first half put Atletico well in control of the Group C clash, and though substitute Umut Bulut did threaten for Gala on occasions, the Liga side were worthy of all three points.

"We played remarkable football in the first half, we were exceptional," said Simeone, although he still saw room for improvement in their overall performance.

"We nearly threw it away at the end [of the first half], because we were poor in our work-rate at that time.

"But in the second half, we played according to the score and we controlled it well.

The Argentine also had acclaim for strike duo Griezmann and Jackson Martinez, saying: "I thought that Antoine and Jackson were very good also, they both worked very hard.

"The whole team was terrific, because it was a tough match."

The result represented the perfect response from Atletico to their 2-1 league loss at home to Barcelona in La Liga last Saturday.

Los Rojiblancos will travel to Benfica next in Group C at the end of September.