Atletico Madrid face an uphill task to reach the last eight of the UEFA Champions League when they host the second leg of their tie against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night.
Madrid currently trail 1-0 from the first leg at the BayArena less than a month ago, since that defeat in Germany their form has suffered scoring just four goals in their previous five games and have drawn the last three in La Liga with the latest being a goalless draw away to Espanyol at the weekend.
Leverkusen’s form has been the complete opposite winning their five games after the first leg scoring 10 and conceding no goals in those games with their last game being a 4-0 demolition of Stuttgart in Bundesliga on Friday. Despite Hakan Calhanoglu’s solo effort giving them a narrow lead going to the Vicente Calderon they will be wary of their opponents home form in Europe with three wins in three and 10 goals scored and none conceded this campaign and have won 20 of the last 22 at home.
Diego Simeone will likely field an attacking team considering the importance of the game but he will be without the duo of Diego Godin and Tiago who are both suspended, Sual Niguez will miss out through and Guillherme Siqueira is a doubt after a hamstring injury kept him out of the draw with Espanyol at the weekend. A massive boost will be the return of the highly-rate winger Koke after he missed the first leg with a hamstring injury.
Roger Schmidt’s side will be pretty much unchanged from the first leg in Germany, one big boost for Leverkusen defensively will be the return of Omer Toprak from his suspension. However Tin Jedvaj and Lars Bender will both be doubts for the fixture.