Manchester City ensured that they made the most of their home advantage, after Kevin De Bruyne's late strike handed the hosts a 1-0 win in an ill-tempered affair at the Etihad Stadium.
The result means that City have a lead to protect when they head to Madrid to face Atletico in the second-leg of their quarter final tie next Wednesday.
Story of the Match
Much had been made in the pre-match build up of the contrasting styles between Pep Guardiola and Diego Simeone, with the Manchester City boss taking objection to suggestions that Simeone played negative football when quizzed about it in his pre-match press conference earlier this week.
However the Argentine did little to quash those suggestions in the early stages at the Etihad Stadium, with the home side dominating possession as Atleti set up camp in front of Jan Oblak's goal.
But despite their domination of the ball in the first 45 (73% possession to Atletico's 27%), the Citizens failed to muster up a single shot on target, with Jan Oblak's role reduced exclusively to time-wasting at any and every given opportunity.
It was Atletico who looked the bigger threat in the early stages of the second-half though, with Marcos Llorente testing the gloves of Ederson before Ilkay Gundogan raced back to prevent Antoine Griezmann from going through one-on-one.
Manchester City registered their first shot on target after 55 minutes, as Kevin De Bruyne's free-kick was comfortably dealt with by Oblak as frustrations began to grow inside the Etihad Stadium.
Atletico were the first to utilise the interchange bench, with Angel Correa (Antoine Griezmann), Rodrigo de Paul (Koke) and Matheus Cunha (Marcos Llorente) all brought into the fray on the hour mark.
Manchester City made a triple change of their own ten minutes later, as Jack Grealish (Ilkay Gundogan), Gabriel Jesus (Raheem Sterling) and Phil Foden (Riyad Mahrez) were introduced into the action.
It took Phil Foden just 80 seconds to mark his presence on the game, as the Manchester City starlet found Kevin De Bruyne with a perfectly weighted ball in behind and the Belgian - who has so often been the hero on European nights at the Etihad - made no mistake in stroking the ball past Oblak to give the Citizens the lead.
Foden was comfortably the best player on the pitch following his introduction, and it was he who danced through the Atletico backline to create an opportunity for De Bruyne to double the hosts lead, however the Manchester City goalscorer saw his tame effort hacked clear.
Tensions boiled over late in the game, as second-half substitute Correa went in late on Grealish before firing the ball into the midriff of the Englishman. Pep Guardiola made his feelings toward the Argentine known.
Atletico switched to their trademark high press as they looked for a late leveller, but they never looked like threatening Ederson, as Manchester City ensured that they would take an advantage to the away leg in Madrid next Wednesday.
Manchester City: Ederson; Ake, Laporte, Stones, Cancelo; Rodri, Gundogan (c) (Grealish '67), Bernardo; Sterling (Jesus '67), De Bruyne, Mahrez (Foden '67).
Atletico: Oblak; Lodi, Reinildo, Felipe, Savić, Vrsaljko (Lemar '80); Llorente (Cunha '59), Kondogbia, Koke (c) (De Paul '59); Felix, Griezmann (Correa '59)