Atletico Madrid vs RB Leipzig Preview & Prediction | 2024-25 UEFA Champions League | League Phase
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New look and evolving Atletico Madrid must up their game in the UEFA Champions League this season after a couple of underwhelming seasons in European competition. They kick off this season against a strong RB Leipzig side this week.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Thursday 19th September, 2024 - UK – 8:00pm / US ET – 3:00pm / US PT – 12:00pm
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – TNT Sports / US – ?????
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – TNT Sports or Discovery+ / US – ?????
ATLETICO MADRID PREVIEW: DIEGO SIMEONE’S EVOLUTION
After spending well over £100 million on the likes of Robin Le Normand, Conor Gallagher, Julian Alvarez and Alexander Sorloth over the summer transfer window; Atletico Madrid and Diego Simeone are expected to continue to evolve their style and they have made an impressive unbeaten start to La Liga after five matches.
Los Rojiblancos come into this one on the back of a 3-0 hammering of struggling Valencia at the Metropolitano in the Spanish capital at the weekend in which the aforementioned Gallagher and Julian Alvarez scored their first goals for the club either side of a strike from experienced talisman, Antoine Griezmann.
RB LEIPZIG PREVIEW: EXCITING LEIPZIG
Marco Rose is an impressive coach and RB Leipzig have enjoyed a strong start to the 2024/25 season with an impressive abundance of attacking riches at his disposal. Leipzig have started the Bundesliga campaign by collecting seven points from their opening three matches but they have scored just four goals in that time.
After starting with a 1-0 defeat of Bochum on the opening weekend of the campaign, Leipzig then went to the BayArena to come from 2-0 down and beat defending champions Bayer Leverkusen by three goals to two. That was followed up by a goalless draw against Union Berlin in their most recent outing at the weekend.
ATLETICO MADRID TEAM NEWS: FINDING THE FORMULA
The issue for Diego Simeone this summer has been to deal with the new signings and find a formula in the starting eleven for everyone to be crammed in such as Gallagher and Sorloth.
The home team are dealing with a couple of injury absentees for this one with young midfielder Pablo Barrios sidelined alongside France international Thomas Lemar.
PREDICTED XI (3-5-2): Oblak; Le Normand, Jose Maria Gimenez, Cesar Azpilicueta; Marcos Llorente, De Paul, Koke, Gallagher, Samuel Lino; Griezmann, Julian Alvarez
UNAVAILABLE: Pablo Barrios (Injured), Lemar (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
RB LEIPZIG TEAM NEWS: FINDING ATTACKING RHYTHM
RB Leipzig have lots of attackers of excellent quality, such as Benjamin Sesko, Xavi Simons and Lois Openda but four goals in three games has been an underwhelming return so far.
The visitors are playing with a back three at the moment with an extremely industrious midfield consisting of Mali international Amadou Haidara as well as Kevin Kampl.
PREDICTED XI (3-4-1-2): Gulacsi; Klostermann, Orban, Lukeba; Henrichs, Haidara, Kampl, Raum; Simons; Sesko, Openda
UNAVAILABLE: Ouedraogo (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
KEY STATS
- Atlético have won only one of their last eight UEFA competition matches against German teams (D2 L5).
- Atlético are unbeaten in their last 13 UEFA competition matches at home against German teams (W9 D4), since a 1-0 defeat by Dortmund in the 1996/97 Champions League group stage.
- Atlético are unbeaten in their last ten matches at home in the UEFA Champions League proper (W6 D4). They won all five home matches in the competition last season.
- Atlético have lost only two of their last 30 UEFA competition matches in their own stadium (W19 D9).
- Atlético have lost their Matchday 1 fixture in only two of their previous 14 UEFA Champions League campaigns (W7 D5).
- Atlético have scored a total of 249 goals in European Cup/UEFA Champions League matches (all rounds, including qualifying).
- Leipzig defeated Atlético 2-1 in the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in a one-off tie in Lisbon in the only previous UEFA competition meeting between these two teams.
- Leipzig’s record in eight previous UEFA competition matches against Spanish teams is W3 D2 L2.
- Only one of Leipzig’s previous 70 UEFA competition matches finished 0-0. That was an away match against Zorya Luhansk in the UEFA Europa League qualifying play-offs in August 2018.
- Leipzig have won their Matchday 1 fixture in three of their last five UEFA Champions League campaigns (L2).
ATLETICO MADRID VS RB LEIPZIG PREDICTION
Atletico Madrid have begun to put together some cohesive attacking patterns of play, as shown by Gallagher’s goal specifically against Valencia following some slick play from Atletico. Leipzig are yet to click into gear going forward, despite scoring three goals against German champions Leverkusen. Despite the evolution of Atleti, it seems unlikely they will abandon their overarching principles in UEFA competition so a low-scoring affair still seems quite likely.
ATLETICO MADRID VS RB LEIPZIG TIP: UNDER 3.5 GOALS
