AC Milan and Atletico Madrid promise a good battle at San Siro on Tuesday night. This will be the Group B match, possibly the one that decides the second passenger to the knockout stage, as many already see Liverpool atop this assembly. Milan is playing solid this season, posting mostly positive results. As for Atletico, they suffered the first defeat of the campaign on Saturday against Alaves, and we’ll see how they respond to that. According to the bookies, this is a close game, but the guests have a slight edge when looking at the odds.
Preview
AC Milan (+180) had a lot of troubles against Spezia in the recent Serie A match. Rossoneri got away with all three points, but they had to go through hell in order to win them. Diaz scored the game-winner only four minutes before the end of the regulations, keeping Stefano Pioli’s guys in the leading place, but with one game more than Napoli.
This unit’s sole defeat since the start of the season is against Liverpool at Anfield, 2-3. Milan had an opportunity to create a surprise against the big rivals and one big chance at 1-2 for them, yet wasted all that.
The past three games saw Pioli’s crew winning twice and recording a draw, against Juventus in Turin, 1-1. All those games saw a moderate efficiency, 2 or 3 goals.
Atletico Madrid (+140) lost against Alaves, 1-0. For the third time in a row when playing away from home, Atletico was trying to flip the result, but unlike the previous two events, there were no injury-time miracles this time.
What is very interesting for us is that Diego Simeone’s side played four games at home and won only one, against Elche, 1-0. In the remaining three meetings, the fans saw draws vs. Villarreal, FC Porto, and Athletic Bilbao, the latter two without goals.
They aren’t convincing as before, especially in the defense. Only three clean sheets in eight matches are not good for Simeone’s standards. Just remember how this team used to lock his goal in recent years.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic won’t play because of his Achilles injury. Florenzi has problems with his knee, while Bakayoko’s injury is still preventing him from becoming active. Rade Krunic is out, while Simon Kjaer and Olivier Giroud stand as questionable but should be in the protocol.
The only injured in Atletico is Thomas Lemar.
Head to Head Games
The last time Milan and Atletico Madrid played was seven years ago in the UCL round of 16. Atletico was far better than Rossoneri, beating them with 5-1 on aggregate. The match in Milan ended 0-1 for them, and the rematch with Rossoneri’s complete disaster, 4-1.
Prediction
Atletico’s style of play will be very defensive-minded, and on the other side, Milan won’t be aggressive as well. All that points towards one low-scoring affair, and our pick here is under 2.5 goals, with the current odds for that at -125. Also, if you want to bet on the final result, the best choice would be a draw.
Pick: Under 2.5 goals at -125
Here are more previews for this UEFA Champions League round:
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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