Group C sees Atletico Madrid visit Turkish side Galatasaray in the first round of games, with Benfica of Portugal and FC Astana of Kazakhstan the other two teams on the fight. The 2014 beaten finalists, who finished third in the Liga last season, are in their sixth group stage campaign and will fight to get his first all three points away. The game will kick-off at 19:45 BST.

It is not the first time in Turk Telekom Arena for Fernando Torres. After scoring against Barça on recent La Liga defeat (1-2), the Spaniard comes to a stadium where he scored before in Blue. Torres’s early opener in 2014 1/16 to final was cancelled out by Aurelien Chedjou’s leveller midway through the second half. Jose Mourinho’s side dominated the first half and should have had more than just a one-goal advantage to show for efforts at the break, which had come when Torres finished from close range following excellent build-up play between Andre Schurrle and Cesar Azpilicueta. Torres paid tribute to Luis Aragonés on the celebrations, as the former Spain and Atlético coach passed away some days before.

The Red-and-whites have lost just one of their last six European group away games, going down 3-2 at Olympiacos FC on matchday one last season. Also Simeones’s side took four points from their other two group away games in 2014/15 and lost their round of 16 away leg 1-0 at Bayer 04 Leverkusen, eventually going through on penalties after the same score at home. They lost 1-0 at Real Madrid and on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

Looking back Atlético have lost just one of their 12 fixtures against Turkish sides, 1-0 at MKE Ankaragücü in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup first round second leg having won 3-0 at home; in Turkey their record is W5 D0 L1.

Meanwhile The Turkish double winners are in their 14th group stage campaign and their fourth in succession. They missed out in the five seasons before 2012/13. At home in last season’s group stage Galatasaray drew 1-1 with RSC Anderlecht, followed by a 4-0 defeat against Borussia Dortmund. They also lost 4-1 at home to Arsenal FC to finish bottom of Group D.

That matchday six reverse stretched the Turkish team’s winless European run to eight matches, although they have lost only five of their last 21 European home matches.