Champions League: Liverpool vs. Atletico Madrid Preview, Odds and Prediction

The match we’ve all been waiting for takes place this Wednesday night in Liverpool. The reigning European champions are awaiting Atletico Madrid, and need to win with a two-goal margin or even more convincing. Anything else won’t guarantee their advance to the next stage. Meanwhile, Atletico is an experienced team who knows how to behave in situations like this one. The Spaniards, too, have their projections for this clash.

Preview

Liverpool (-182) is not convincing now as it used to be a couple of weeks earlier. Everything started with a defeat in Madrid, after which the Reds lost two more road matches in a row, and weren’t able to net in neither of them. It was the poorest stretch of Jurgen Klopp’s side since the season began. However, they stopped the decline against Watford this weekend with a 2-1 win and improved the overall atmosphere inside and outside the locker room. This game will be a true test for the champs, who will either heal after all the adversities and get back into the saddle, or crumble down and disappear from the international map for this season. Meanwhile, Liverpool has 11 straight wins at Anfield, and in seven of them, the Reds protected their net.

Atletico Madrid (+550) didn’t succeed in winning in La Liga derby against Sevilla, before jumping to England. Simeone’s guys played 2-2 with their big rivals, and instead of moving up in the standings, they’ve once again missed the opportunity to close down the gap between them and Barca and Real. This was the sixth straight game in which they haven’t lost, but when looking a bit more detailed, we might see that Atletico didn’t win in six consecutive road matches. Now that is something which disturbs their fans pretty much, especially after last year’s catastrophe in Turin once Juve overcame a 0-2 deficit from the first leg. For the stats lovers, four of the previous five games Atletico played ended with both teams scoring.

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A big blow for the hosts will be the absence of Alisson Becker the starting goalkeeper, who was a big part in their last year’s quest to the UCL. Also, Xherdan Shaqiri and Nathaniel Clyne will be absent, while Jordan Henderson’s thigh injury should be healed.

On the other side, Thomas Lemar and Alvaro Morata sit under a question mark.

Head to Head Games

Liverpool and Atletico played five matches so far, and the English side won just one. That was back in 2010, in the semis of the Europa League, but the Spaniards got away on an aggregate goal rule. The first event terminated with Saul’s early hit, after just four minutes.

Prediction

We will see one tough and rough match with Atletico defending at all costs, the way only they know and nobody else. Liverpool’s players will have Anfield behind themselves, which is a great advantage in this situation. After analyzing all the circumstances, our final pick would be 2 or 3 goals, meaning that the efficiency is going to be moderate. We can’t see more scores than this, and also, we can’t imagine this game ending with one or none goals. The odds for our suggestion are currently at -105.