Atletico Madrid vs Liverpool 19/02/20

19 February 2020

Atletico Madrid welcome Liverpool to the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano for the first leg of their UEFA Champions League (CL) last-16 tie.

Diego Simeone’s men are having a rough period, as they’ve failed to pick up a win in six of their last seven games in all competitions (D4, L2), drawing a blank on three of those occasions. The vast majority of those fixtures (six) have featured under 2.5 goals, with 57.14% yielding the exact 0-0 halftime scoreline. But, Wanda Metropolitano has been something of a fortress lately, with Atletico securing seven wins in their last nine competitive games here (D1, L1). Notably, five of those successes have been accompanied by a clean sheet, which has also been the case in two of Atletico’s three CL home games this term. Los Colchoneros boast an intimidating home record against the English visitors in the last 12 such meetings (W7, D4, L1) and have also won all four of their previous two-legged continental showdowns against the Premier League rivals.

Probably the best European team at the moment, Liverpool have won 30 of their previous 34 competitive fixtures (D3, L1), including the last four. Notably, ten of the Reds’ past 11 victories in all competitions have yielded a clean sheet, with five producing the identical 1-0 scoreline. In turn, Jurgen Klopp’s players have kept seven blank sheets in their last eight CL last-16 encounters. They’ve progressed to the knockout stages as Group E winners thanks to four wins in five group matches (D1) following a 2-0 loss to Napoli in the CL curtain-raiser. However, the Merseyside giants have failed to beat Atletico in both of their previous trips to Madrid (D1, L1) and have lost seven of their last 12 European matches outside England. Also, they have endured mixed fortunes in 18 continental trips to Spain so far (W7, D5, L6), suffering four defeats in the last five (D1).