Atletico Madrid will look to capitalize on Barcelona poor run of form when the Spanish rivals meet for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at the Vicente Calderon on Tonight.
Barcelona have lost their last two in La Liga to blow the title race wide open, but they will enter this week’s match with a 2-1 advantage from the first leg last week and having won their last seven against Atletico in all competitions.
ATLETICO MADRID
Atletico Madrid have failed to beat Barcelona since April 2014, That victory, however, came in the quarter-finals of the 2013-14 Champions League, when a strike from Koke saw Diego Simeone’s side overcome Barcelona to make the semi-finals.
Atletico also boast an excellent home record in Europe, having lost just two of their last 28 at the Vicente Calderon recording 23 victories in the process. Should they reach the semi-finals this season, it would be the fifth time that they have progressed to the final four and they have still managed to advance in 11 of the 20 UEFA competition ties where they lost the first leg away from home.
Recent form (all competitions): WWLWLW
BARCELONA
The Spanish giants are still the favorites to claim La Liga and the Copa del Rey this season, but they have work to do in the Champions League as they prepare to tackle an Atletico team that can sense blood.
Barcelona have won this competition on four occasions in the last 10 seasons, however, and are attempting to become the first team since the great AC Milan in 1989 and 1990 to win back-to-back European Cups.
The wonderful trio Lionel Messi, Suarez and Neymar will enter the match with 109 club goals between them for the season, but Messi is currently on his worst Barcelona scoring run for five years, having gone 362 minutes without netting in any competition.
Recent form (all competitions): WWDLWL
TEAM NEWS
Centre-backs Jose Gimenez and Stefan Savic, leaving young Frenchman Lucas Hernandez to partner Diego Godin at the heart of the defence.
Fernando Torres, meanwhile, is suspended following his red card in the first leg. Luciano Vietto could come in at centre-forward,leading scorer might be task to handle the midfield Antoine Griezmann through the middle, with support from Saul Niguez and Yannick Ferreira Carrasco in the wide positions.
Jeremy Mathieu and Rafinha, however, will miss out with knee and hamstring injuries respectively
HEAD TO HEAD
As mentioned, these two domestic rivals also met at the quarter-final stage of the 2013-14 Champions League and it was Atletico that advanced courtesy of a 2-1 aggregate win. That year, the first leg also took place at Camp Nou, where it finished 1-1, before Atletico recorded a 1-0 win in the return.
Atletico are actually the only team to prevent Barcelona from reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League in the last eight seasons and are one of just three clubs to have eliminated the Catalan outfit in the quarter-finals of this competition. Barcelona have won their last seven games against Atletico in all competitions including both La Liga fixtures this season.
UEFA Champions League Preview : Atletico Madrid Vs. Barcelona
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