Atletico Madrid will begin their 2021/22 UEFA Champions League campaign when they welcome FC Porto to the Spanish capital this Wednesday.
Venue: Wanda Metropolitano
Key Statistics
Atletico Madrid have failed to win their last two opening matches of the UEFA Champions L (D1, L1)
They have progressed from seven of their last eight UCL groups
Porto are playing their 25th UCL group stage this season
They are only behind Barcelona and Real Madrid (26) for all-time appearances.
Head to head (H2H)
Both teams have met six times in European competitions in the past. Atletico and Porto have both won two matches each, while two games have ended as draws.
Atletico Madrid won the last two meetings by an aggregate score of 4-1.
Latest Performances (90 minutes)
Atletico Madrid: W-D-W-W-W
Porto: D-W-D-W-W
Atletico Madrid
Atletico qualified for this year’s UCL campaign by winning the LA Liga trophy last season. They enter the group stage as the highest-seeded side and will hope to begin with a win.
Diego Simeone’s side possesses real momentum and are entering this tie without a loss in their last nine competitive games.
They have begun this season the way they ended the last having picked up three wins from their opening four games.
Although they have not been tight at the back, they remain formidable in attack and have only failed to score once in their last 13 competitive games.
Simeone has no injury concerns at the moment but will be without centre-back Stefan Savic, who is suspended after being shown a red card in their last UCL game against Chelsea. Jose Gimenez is expected to take his place in the starting lineup.
Possible Atletico starting line-ups
Jan Oblak; Jose Gimenez, Felipe, Mario Hermoso; Yannick Carrasco, Koke, Marcos Llorente, Thomas Lemar, Kieran Trippier; Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suárez.
Porto
FC Porto qualified for this stage of the Champions League by finishing second in the Portuguese League table after they were pipped to the Portuguese Primeira Liga title last term by Sporting Lisbon.
They have begun this season well and played out a 1-1 draw in their last clash with Sporting over the weekend.
Sergio Conceicao’s face the arduous task of qualifying from this group as they have been placed in the same group as big hitters Liverpool and AC Milan. However, they have made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League in four of the last five seasons and will be confident of doing the same here despite the quality of their group opponents.
The visitors kept five clean sheets in the group stages last season and will hope to kick start this campaign with another clean sheet.
However, they will look to do so without the services of Marko Grujic and goalkeeper Agustin Marchesin, who is still recovering from knee surgery.
Possible Porto starting line-ups
Diogo Costa; Joao Mário, Pepe, Chancel Mbemba, Ivan Marcano; Mateus Uribe, Sérgio Oliveira, Otavio, Luis Diaz; Toni Martínez, Mehdi Taremi.
Probability
Atletico Madrid win : Draw : FC Porto win :: 61% : 26% : 13%
Prediction
Despite the quality of Atletico, Porot proved last year that they are no pushovers and will be looking to do so again this campaign.
Although they have been placed as the outsiders in this group, they have the quality and experience in their squad to spring a surprise against their Spanish counterparts who are struggling to keep clean sheets this season.
Atletico Madrid 1-1 FC Porto
