Brugge could not keep the Norwegian target man at bay as he settled an entertaining tie with a display of lethal finishing at the Metropolitano stadium.
After Joel Ordonez had cancelled out Sorloth’s opener, Johnny Cardoso smashed Atletico in front and Sorloth added two more goals late on to seal his team’s victory.
“We did well to keep pushing on in attack, my teammates gave good passes to me and I just had to score,” Sorloth told Movistar.
“I’m feeling very good at this moment of the season and finishing well in front of goal is a fantastic feeling for a striker.”
Diego Simeone’s Atletico, who have never won the competition, took a few minutes to get going in the early exchanges and David Hancko blocked Hugo Vetlesen’s effort well as the visitors attempted to capitalise.
However, the Spaniards took the lead when goalkeeper Jan Oblak went route one from the back, finding Sorloth in a good position.
The powerful striker held off his marker and beat goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who handled the shot poorly and might have kept it out.
Julian Alvarez headed wide as Atletico, ascendant, looked for a second.
The Rojiblancos twice lost the lead in Belgium last week against Ivan Leko’s side and it happened again a few minutes before half-time.
Ordonez nodded home from on the goal-line after Brandon Mechele flicked on a corner into his path.
Brugge almost took the lead before the break but Oblak made a superb save to claw out Vetlesen’s header.
Instead Atletico went ahead shortly after the restart, with American midfielder Cardoso hammering home from the edge of the box after the ball was cleared into his path.
Atletico will face a Premier League side in the last 16, either English champions Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur.
Newcastle United, meanwhile, completed their stroll into the last 16 with a 3-2 win over Qarabag to progress 9-3 on aggregate over the Azeri champions.
The Magpies will make up a six-strong contingent of English sides in the last 16 alongside Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham.
A tie that involved an over 8,000km round trip for both sides was killed off inside 45 minutes last week as Newcastle led 5-0 at half-time on their way to a 6-1 rout.
That allowed Eddie Howe to heavily rotate his side, with four-goal hero from the first leg Anthony Gordon among those left on the bench.
But he was still disappointed with how Newcastle handled the second half after another fast start as they added to their lead twice inside the opening six minutes of the match.
Sandro Tonali fired in the rebound after Dan Burn’s shot was saved, before Joelinton stroked in Harvey Barnes’ cross.
“I think if you look at the score over the two legs it’s been fantastic from the players even though today feels like a bit of a hollow win for us,” said Howe.
“I thought at 2-0 we probably came off the pedal. We didn’t intend to do that but it was sort of the natural reaction.
“In the second half the game became end-to-end which, for us, was a real shame. For one, we expended too much energy, and it meant we didn’t put pressure on their goal.”
Qarabag had taken the scalps of Benfica and Eintracht Frankfurt in the league phase to make the play-off round and at least salvaged some pride with two goals in the second period.
Camilo Duran outpaced Burn to pull a goal back before the Newcastle defender was penalised for handball inside the box.
Aaron Ramsdale saved Marko Jankovic’s penalty but Elvin Jafarguliyev netted the rebound.
In between the visitors’ two goals, Sven Botman powered in a header from a corner.
That took the tally of goals conceded by Qarabag in the Champions League to 30, a single season record in the competition.
A much tougher test lies ahead of Newcastle next month when they will take on either Barcelona or Chelsea in the last 16.
Bayer Leverkusen are also through to the last 16 after a scoreless home draw with Olympiacos, winning their play-off round tie 2-0 on aggregate. (AFP)
Edited by Cecil Wong
