Atletico Madrid kick off their UEFA Champions League group stage campaign on Tuesday evening with a trip to the Italian capital where they will face AS Roma at the Olympic Stadium. Every point will matter in Group C as Atletico and Roma will battle for the first two spots with Premier League champions Chelsea, while Qarabag from Azerbaijan will be the outsiders. The two teams have met just once in European competitions, it happened in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals back in 1999, and Atletico Madrid won both matches 2-1.
Roma had a longer time to rest before this match as their Serie A fixture against Sampdoria last weekend was postponed. They didn't have a good start to the season as they squeezed past Atalanta 1-0 before losing 3-1 at home against Inter Milan just before the international break. Moreover, they have not won any of their last six UEFA Champions League matches. Emerson and Patrik Schick are injured and will most likely miss out, but Alessandro Florenzi could make his return after almost a year on the sidelines.
Atletico Madrid didn't have the best campaign start either, they managed to win just one of their three LaLiga matches so far, 5-1 at struggling Las Palmas, and they drew 2-2 at Girona and 0-0 at Valencia last weekend. Diego Godin, Jose Gimenez and Gabi were rested by head coach Diego Simeone last weekend even though Atletico Madrid don't have any injury worries at this point. Fernando Torres could play a part here, while Thomas Partey could also be given a starting berth after his impressive performances so far.
Probable line-ups:
Roma: Alisson - Florenzi, Manolas, Fazio, Kolarov - Nainggolan, De Rossi, Strootman - Defrel, Dzeko, Perotti
Atletico: Oblak - Juanfran, Gimenez, Godin, Luis - Koke, Gabi, Niguez, Carrasco - Torres, Griezmann
My prediction: Atletico Madrid to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Roma win - 3.00
Draw - 3.20
Atletico win - 2.63
Your feedback
Please enter your comment.
Your comment is added.
