Tottenham Hotspur vs Atletico Madrid
Tottenham Hotspur have a mountain to climb on Wednesday when Atletico Madrid head to North London, looking to book their place in the Champions League quarter finals.
And Diego Simeone’s men are red hot favourites to navigate the tie, after Julian Alvarez scored twice in a 5-2 first leg bonanza win for Atleti. Should the hosts come out of this fixture, Champions League: Tottenham vs Atletico Madrid, on the right side it will be one of the results of the tournaments so far. Not only do Spurs have a three goal deficit to make up, they come into the game after a wretched run of results under their latest manager, Igor Tudor, while their visitors are in decent form.
Third-placed in La Liga, 13 points behind leaders Barcelona and 13 ahead of fifth placed Real Betis, Atleti’s destiny for this campaign is pretty much certain. Not so Tottenham who are in real peril, in 16th place in the Premier League table and just a single point above the drop zone. But the Whites did spring a small surprise on Sunday, drawing away to top four chasing Liverpool, meanwhile Atleti recorded an expected win at home to Getafe.
Talking Points
There’s life in Tottenham yet
After Spurs finished 17th in the 2024/25 Premier League, I for one though the appointment of Thomas Frank was a good one and the former Brentford boss would lead the Whites to better things. They started well enough, beating Burnley 3-0 on the opening day and were certainly doing okay in the league while thriving in Europe. But through the winter things unravelled as injury hit Spurs stumbled from defeat to defeat, leading to Frank’s departure and the arrival of Tudor.
There were calls for the new man to go following the drubbing in Madrid last week, but Spurs put in a much better performance away to Liverpool. Despite trailing 1-0 for much of the game, Tottenham were dogged in defence and carried a threat in attack and, eventually, former Everton star Richarlison silenced the Anfield crowd with a 90th minute equaliser. The draw ended a run of six consecutive defeats and certainly gave the travelling fans something to cheer before they face Los Rojiblancos again.
In my SBOTOP preview of Chelsea’s second leg tie at home to Paris Saint-Germain, I said the Blues need a miracle, and Tottenham are in the same boat. But they will be cheered by the return of inspirational centre back Micky Van de Ven, who was suspended for the match with Liverpool, though, in other Tottenham vs Atletico Madrid news, striker Richarlison misses out as he picked up a yellow card in the first leg, and Randal Kolo Muani is likely to step in.
As the last line of defence I will be astonished if Guglielmo Vicario doesn’t continue in goal, after Tudor’s experimental use of the 22 year old stopper Antonin Kinsky in the first leg, a decision which catastrophically back-fired as he hooked the youngster with the score at 3-0 with just 17 minutes on the clock.
Tudor cannot afford any more costly errors.
Musso to start for Atletico
As for Atleti, Simeone has an easy call to make between the sticks as number one stopper Jan Oblak has been ruled out with a muscular issue, so Juan Musso is set to stand in. The 31 year old Argentine keeper has bags of experience with Udinese and Atalanta in the Italian league and he is a reassuring presence for his defence, marshalled by club legend Jose Gimenez alongside France and former Spurs star Clement Lenglet.
The keeper change is likely to be the main difference to Simeone’s line-up for the first leg. With eight goals and three assists in this La Liga campaign, Alvarez has struck up a fruitful partnership with Alexander Sorloth, top scoring with ten goals, while Antoine Griezmann remains one of the best creative players in Spain. And Alvarez is set to start alongside Griezmann and Ademola Lookman, with Sorloth a potential impact substitute.
History
This is the third times these two teams have met, and another opportunity for Spurs to avoid defeat, having failed spectacularly last week, ten years after a 1-0 loss in the ICC Cup.
With five wins and one loss from the last five games Los Rojiblancos have been in much better shape than the Spurs, who picked up that draw against Liverpool following six losses.
Betting Tip
The Tottenham vs Atletico Madrid betting odds say this is a tough tie to call, which means it will be a huge upset if Los Rojiblancos fail to make it through to the last eight.
Spurs are priced at 2.55 with Atletico at 2.50 and the draw is at 3.75. Atleti have opened the scoring in seven of the last eight games in this competition and I hope an early Rojiblancos’s strike could spark a first half goal spree.
A SHORT EXPLANATION ON HOW OUR (⭐) BETS ARE WORTH:
⭐⭐⭐= €20 (HIGHLY CONFIDENT)
⭐⭐= €10 (CONFIDENT)
⭐= €5 (SOMEWHAT CONFIDENT)
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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