Atlético Madrid vs Barcelona Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Apr 11, 2016 @ 02:25 am

Next Wednesday, 13th of April 2016, a recently inconsistent Barcelona will measure forces with an extremely solid Atlético Madrid team at the historical Vicente Calderón for the second-leg of the UEFA Champions League Quarter-finals.

Atlético Madrid were determined to claw a good result when they visited Camp Nou last week and everything seemed to go according to plan until Fernando Torres was sent-off on minute 35’ of the first-half. The Colchoneros were leading 1-0 when El Niño was shown the red card and they have managed to withstand that narrow lead until the minute 20’ of the second-half when Luis Suárez netted the equalizer. Atlético ended up losing by 2-1 after the erratic Uruguayan forward scored for the second time in the match, but they still have strong chances of walking through to the next round of the competition.

Last weekend, Diego Simeone’s men came from behind to defeat RCD Espanyol at Catalunya by 3-1, on what might be a good prelude for the upcoming match against the other Catalan team, Barcelona. For that complicated match, Diego “El Cholo” Simeone will still not be able to rely on the services of José Gimenez, Stefan Savic and Tiago, who are all sidelined due to injury. Fernando Torres will also miss out there due to suspension.

As for Barcelona, the Catalan team seem to have been affected by their draw at El Madrigal later last month and since then they have been an extremely inconsistent team. A home defeat against Real Madrid and another one away from home last weekend at Anoeta against Real Sociedad was the best Barcelona managed to achieve at La Liga. Last week’s win over Atlético Madrid was the only highlight of the Catalan team in the last twenty-something days. Last Saturday, the Blaugranas fell once again short from expectations during their usually complicated visit to Anoeta, where Barcelona don’t win since 2007.

For next Wednesday’s extremely important match at Vicente Calderón, Luis Enrique will not be able to rely on the services of Aleix Vidal, Mathieu, Sandro Ramirez and Adriano, who are all out due to injury.

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WLWLW

Barcelona

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LWLDW

Possible Line-ups

Atlético Madrid (4-4-2) - Oblak - Juanfran - Filipe Luis - Godin - Lucas Hernández - Koke - Gabi - Niguez - Fernández - Griezmann - Carrasco

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Alves - Pique - Mascherano - Alba - Busquets - Iniesta - Rakitic - Neymar - Suárez - Messi

Injury List / Suspended Players

Barcelona - Adriano (inj) - Sandro (inj) - Mathieu (inj) - Aleix Vidal (inj)

Atlético Madrid - Tiago (inj) - Giménez (inj) - Savic (inj) - Fernando Torres (sus)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions