Atletico Madrid – Bayer Leverkusen

Atletico Madrid are ready to finish the job against Bayer Leverkusen in a Champions League 1/8-finals second leg.

The Spanish team won the first leg at the Vicente Calderon with 4-2, which is basically almost qualifying them for the 1/4-finals. But in this tournament everything is possible, so Diego Simeone’s boys should be careful against the Germans and do their job with the much needed respect for the opponent.

Atletico dominated the first game on German turf, scoring four goals at the BayArena. Now Tayfun Korkut’s team is going to need at least three “clean” goals, if they want to eliminate last year’s finalists and qualify for the next round. Something which is going to be really, really hard for them.

Atletico Madrid is a team which plays really strong at home. Diego Simeone is a manager who knows how to keep an advantage, so we could say that Leverkusen’s chances at the Vicente Calderon are really slim.

Augusto Matias Fernandez is still injured for the home team, while the French striker Kevin Gameiro is doubtful for the game because of a groin injury. In the match against Granada he was replaced in the starting line-up by the Belgian international Yannick Ferreira Carrasco.

There are some problems for Leverkusen’s manager Tayfun Korkut as well. Lars Bender, Stefan Kiessling, Omer Toprak, Bernd Leno and Jonathan Tah are all doubtful for the game, so we will see if they are going to be able to play in Madrid.

Atletico Madrid are the clear favourite to qualify for the next round, but what happened between Barcelona and PSG is a clear example that in football everything is possible. Of course, everything but a qualification for Atletico is going to be a huge surprise. We could safely say that they are the better team at the moment.