On Tuesday night, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid go head-to-head at the Etihad Stadium in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie.
Alongside Liverpool and Bayern Munich, Man City are among the bookmakers’ favourites to lift the trophy at the Stade de France in May.
Manchester City ⚽💭 pic.twitter.com/ujquyEUuXY— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) April 3, 2022
Manchester City ⚽💭 pic.twitter.com/ujquyEUuXY
With the likes of Chelsea and Real Madrid also in the mix, Atletico are viewed as one of the outsiders. Still, it would be foolish to write off Diego Simeone’s side altogether.
Man City head into Tuesday’s clash on the back of a 2-0 win over Burnley, meaning they remain one point clear atop the Premier League table.
Pep Guardiola’s men have lost just one of their previous 20 Premier League outings, picking up 17 wins and two draws along the way.
In the Champions League, the Cityzens finished one point clear of second-place Paris Saint-Germain to top Group A – scoring 18 goals in the process.
Having dispatched Sporting CP 5-0 in the round of 16, City will be confident of overcoming Atletico and booking their place in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Atletico thrashed Alaves 4-1 on Saturday – with both Joao Felix and Luis Suarez bagging a brace.
Not only have Simeone’s team won each of their last six La Liga games, but they have also won eight of their previous ten.
Although Atletico managed to win just two of their six Champions League group games, they finished ahead of Porto and Milan to snatch second place in Group B.
In the previous round, the Spanish side claimed a 2-1 aggregate victory over Manchester United to secure their spot in the quarter-finals.
Head-to-head: This is the first competitive meeting between Man City and Atletico Madrid, meaning there are no previous results to assess for this matchup.
Team news: Man City will be without key centre-back Ruben Dias on Tuesday, while Cole Palmer is also sidelined through injury.
As for Atletico, Daniel Wass, Matheus Cunha, Thomas Lemar and Sime Vrsaljko all featured in Saturday’s squad to face Alaves. They should be fit to face City on Tuesday.
Although Atletico have upped their game in recent times, there is no denying that Man City are stronger than Simeone’s side.
With that in mind, Forebet predicts that Man City will keep a clean sheet on their way to beating the Spaniards on Tuesday.