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Atletico Madrid kick off new campaign with victory over Las Palmas

Antoine Griezmann's deflected free kick is enough to give Atletico Madrid a 1-0 victory over Las Palmas on the opening day of the new season.

Atletico Madrid have started the new La Liga campaign with a 1-0 victory over Las Palmas at the Vicente Calderon.

It was an expected win for Diego Simeone's side, but they were unable to cruise to all three points on a night when the newly-promoted Las Palmas showed impressive resilience.

In a first half containing very few chances, Antoine Griezmann was the first player to threaten the goal when he fired a shot wide of the post from a difficult angle.

The Frenchman did make the breakthrough in the 17th minute when his deflected free kick left Las Palmas goalkeeper Raul Lizoain powerless to keep the ball out of the net.

Unsurprisingly, the 2013-14 champions grew in confidence after making the breakthrough and they twice came close to doubling the lead before the interval as Filipe Luis sent a deflected effort wide of the post, before Raul pushed away a powerful strike from Griezmann.

Las Palmas made the brighter start to the second half, but the visitors were left frustrated when their best chance to get back on level terms ended with David Simon heading against the crossbar after being gifted space in the box.

Atletico enjoyed another long spell on top without enjoying too much success in the final third of the pitch, and Simeone was left thanking Jan Oblak when the goalkeeper protected their slender advantage by pushing away an effort from Aythami, who looked set to capitalise on poor marking from a corner.

Raul came to the rescue with another save from Luis, but his heroics would not be rewarded, though, as Aythami wasted another chance when he headed over the crossbar late on.

Koke was inches away from making it 2-0 when his free kick rattled the post in the closing stages as Atletico started the new campaign with all three points in the capital.

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Atletico Madrid's French forward Antoine Griezmann celebrates a goal with teammate Atletico Madrid's forward Fernando Torres during the Spanish league football match Club Atletico de Madrid vs Real Sociedad de Futbol at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Mad
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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Atletico MadridAtletico18125133122141
2Real Madrid18124241182340
3Barcelona19122551222938
4Athletic Bilbao19106329171236
5Villarreal188643430430
6Mallorca199371921-230
7Real Sociedad187471613325
8GironaGirona187472625125
9Real BetisBetis186752122-125
10Osasuna186752327-425
11Celta Vigo187382728-124
12Rayo Vallecano185762021-122
13Las PalmasLas Palmas186482327-422
14Sevilla186482027-722
15Leganes184681728-1118
16AlavesAlaves184592130-917
17Getafe183781115-416
18Espanyol1843111630-1415
19Valencia172691626-1012
20Real ValladolidValladolid1833121237-2512


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