The Champions League group stages can dish up some special nights of European football and that’s exactly what we have at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid.
Atletico Madrid host Juventus and both teams will not only be confident of progressing from the group but also going deep in the competition this season.
Atletico Madrid come into the game having suffered defeat at the hands of Real Sociedad in La Liga on the weekend. Diego Simeone’s team went down 2-0 and that leaves them in second place in La Liga, 1 point adrift of the leaders, Sevilla.
It was a first defeat of the season for Atletico Madrid who won all three of their La Liga games prior to the international break. Atletico Madrid beat Getafe 1-0 at home, Leganes 1-0 away from home and Eibar 3-2 at home.
In the Champions League, trends show Atletico Madrid has lost only one of their last five games and two of the last thirteen. The most recent defeat ended their hopes of winning the Champions League last season as they slumped to a 3-0 loss at Juventus.
Home form in the Champions League shows Atletico Madrid are undefeated in their last six matches and have won each of the last five. There have been wins over Roma, Club Brugge, Borussia Dortmund, Monaco and Juventus. The most common factor in these wins was a clean sheet and Atletico Madrid kept four, conceding just a single goal.
Juventus resumed their Serie A title defence with a 0-0 draw at Fiorentina on Saturday. Cristiano Ronaldo could not repeat the heroics of his goals for Portugal last week as Juventus failed to make the breakthrough in Florence. The result leaves them on 7 points from three games played, 2 points adrift of the current leaders, Inter Milan.
Having defeated Atletico Madrid 3-0 at home to progress to the Champions League quarter-final last season, Juventus lost to Ajax. They picked up a 1-1 draw in the away leg and trends show Juventus have failed to win any of their last three away Champions League games. In addition to the draw at Ajax they lost to Young Boys and Atletico Madrid.
However, Juventus have scored in eight of their last nine away Champions League matches.
Welcome to the @ChampionsLeague. Let's just live it. Just Live Ahead.#JuveUCL pic.twitter.com/Sf01gA0ssI— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) September 16, 2019
Welcome to the @ChampionsLeague. Let's just live it. Just Live Ahead.#JuveUCL pic.twitter.com/Sf01gA0ssI
Team news and Atletico Madrid are without Sime Vrsaljko who has a serious knee injury. They also have doubts over Alvaro Morata and Thomas.
Juventus travel without the injured trio of Giorgio Chiellini, Matia Perin and Mattia De Sciglio. Danilo, Douglas Costa, Gonzalo Higuain and Miralem Pjanic are all rated as being doubtful.
This should be a tight game between two big clubs. We could see the match end level with under 2.5 goals scored.