O Dragao, first final for Atlético
Simeone’s men need to beat Porto and wait for help from San Siro
MADRID, 6 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Atlético de Madrid is played this Tuesday at the Estádio do Dragao (9:00 p.m. / Movistar Champions League) for much of the season in a ‘final’ for moving forward in the Champions League, a life or death match against Porto , the one of the last day of the group stage, in which both aspire to get their ticket for the second round.
With Liverpool (15) leading and with the first place already secured, the second position of Group B is an unknown that will finally be resolved this Tuesday. The protagonists of the Portuguese venue and San Siro will have to look askance at the results of the other matches to see if they will be in the knockout rounds.
At the moment, Diego Pablo Simeone’s men (4) are one point behind Porto (5) and with the same points as AC Milan (4), which just a week ago blew everything up with a goal from the Brazilian Junior Messias in the 87th minute that completely silenced the Metropolitan Wanda (0-1).
Now, the accounts are clear: if they want to be in the round of 16, the rojiblanco team is obliged to win in Portugal by one more goal than the Italians do at San Siro against a Liverpool that no longer plays anything. And for this, he will have to recover from the mental blow that was the defeat on Saturday against Mallorca in LaLiga Santander (1-2).
The Brazilian Matheus Cunha responded to his first start by overtaking the colchoneros, but Russo, in the 80th minute, and Take Kubo, in the discount, managed to turn the game around and leave the ‘Cholo’ team within ten points of the leader Real Madrid (39) -which has one more game-.
The traditional defensive reliability of the Madrid team is still missing, a risk in the face of the arrival of a Porto that has only run dry in one of its last 15 games – against Liverpool (2-0) -. The losses of Felipe Monteiro, due to suspension, and the injured Kieran Trippier have been joined in the last hours by those of Stefan Savic, with a muscle injury in his right thigh, and José María Giménez, who has not yet recovered from a contracture.
Both will force the ‘Cholo’ to make changes in the rear. Thus, it will foreseeably have Sime Vrsaljko and Renan Lodi on the wings, and Geoffrey Kondogbia could be the one who paired with Mario Hermoso in the center of defense.
Above, the rojiblanco coach recovers Yannick Carrasco, although he will have to wait on the bench in an attack predictably led by Antoine Griezmann and Luis Suárez, who returns to eleven, and in which Cunha could see his good work rewarded against the Balearic Islands or leave his place to Thomas Lemar.
Opposite, Porto will try to defend their second place in the group, for which it is enough to beat Madrid; In their first group engagement, they took a draw from Wanda Metropolitano (0-0), a result that could also be enough this time in case Milan did not beat the ‘reds’.
In the Portuguese league, Sérgio Conceição’s men are undefeated leaders, after having won 11 games and drawn another two, and have only conceded eight goals – and scored 33 – in the thirteen tournament dates.
Colombian Mateus Uribe will miss the match due to suspension and Iván Marcano will not be due to a foot injury, while ex-Madrid player Pepe and João Mário could recover in time to face the match.
DATASHEET.
–POSSIBLE ALIGNMENTS.
OPORTO: Diogo Costa; Joao Mario, Mbemba, Pepe, Zaidu; Otávio, Sérgio Oliveira, Vítor Ferreira, Luis Díaz; Evanilson and Taremi.
ATLÉTICO DE MADRID: Oblak; Vrsaljko, Kondogbia, Hermoso, Lodi; Llorente, De Paul, Koke; Griezmann, Cunha and Suárez.
–ARBITRO: Clément Turpin (FRA).
–STADIUM: The Dragon.
–TIME: 21.00 / Movistar Champions League.