Next Wednesday, 25th of February 2015, last season’s Champions League runner-ups Altético Madrid will travel to Germany to measure forces with Bayer Leverkusen at BayArena for the first-leg of the Last 16 stage of the UEFA Champions League.

After a somehow unexpected defeat at Los Balaídos against Celta de Vigo two weeks ago, Atlético Madrid’s manager Diego Simeone managed to rally the troops and bounced back immediately by hammering Almeria 3-0 last Saturday at Vicente Calderón. It was, by all means, a completely different match from the one that took place at Galicia, where Atlético didn’t manage to impose their free flowing attacking game against a well organized Celta that figured out how to exploit the Colchoneros' vulnerabilities.

Diego Simeone’s boys put up a quality performance, especially during the first-half, against a hopeless Almeria that failed to counter the first overwhelming 30 minutes of the Madrid team. Atlético, who were highly moralized after beating their neighbours and rivals of Real Madrid early this month, have not managed to be consistent and the defeat against Celta might have somehow jeopardized the team’s chances of winning the Spanish La Liga’s title once again.

Atlético have had a solid Champions League campaign so far, as they have managed to win four of the six matches they took part in and were only defeated once at the hands of an utterly inspired Olympiacos at Piraeus. The upcoming match against Bayer will certainly not be an easy one, although Atlético have everything in their favour to secure a good result during their travel to Germany. For that particular clash, Diego “El Cholo” Simeone will not be able to rely on the services of Koke, who remains sidelined due to injury.

As for Bayer Leverkusen, the German side is definitely not going through a very positive period, as they have only won once since the beginning of the new year. The Bundesliga’s Winter break has also “broken” Bayer, who have lost twice in the last three matches. Two weeks ago, Bayer was surprised at home by Wolfsburg who claimed the match by an unusual 5-4 result and this considerably floored even further the team’s already fragile motivation levels.

Bayer had a regular campaign on the Champions League this season, as they have managed to leave Benfica and Zenit behind during the group stage.

For the predictably complicated match against Atlético next Wednesday, Roger Schmidt will not be able to rely on the contribution of Toprak, who is currently suspended, and of Tin Jedvaj and Lars Bender, who are currently sidelined due to injury.

Bayer Leverkusen

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - DLLWD

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WLWWL

Possible Line-ups

Bayer Leverkusen  (4-4-2) - Leno - Castro - Spahic - Papadopoulos - Wendell - Brandt - Rolfes - Hakan Çalhanoglu - Son - Bellarabi - Drmic

Atlético Madrid (4-4-1-1) - Moya - Juanfran - Miranda - Godín - Ansaldi - Tiago - Gabi - Turan - Griezmann - Niguez - Mandzukic

Prediction

Bayer Leverkusen 0 Atlético Madrid 1