Atletico Madrid vs Bayer Leverkusen

Atletico Madrid’s bid to avoid bowing out of the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2017/18 is up in the air as Bayer Leverkusen arrive at the Metropolitano Stadium for a crunch Group B showdown.

Since eking out a dramatic 2-1 home win over Porto in the opening Champions League round, Atletico Madrid have drawn a blank in three consecutive Group B outings (D1, L2), including a 2-0 defeat at Leverkusen in the reverse fixture. With Club Brugge defying the odds to claim their first-ever knockout appearance with two games to spare, ‘Los Rojiblancos’ will be battling it out for the one remaining qualification spot. Another slip-up could inflict a fatal blow on their bid to overturn a two-point deficit on current runners-up Porto, yet there’s a silver lining for the home side. ‘Los Colchoneros’ have gone unbeaten in their last 11 Champions League matches when hosting Bundesliga visitors (W8, D3) and go into this encounter on the back of a 2-1 win away to Real Betis at the weekend.

In the meantime, apart from a stunning home triumph over Atletico, visiting Bayer Leverkusen have lost their three remaining Champions League fixtures this term and are unsurprisingly nailed to the bottom of the standings. However, with Porto only three points away, ‘Die Werkself’ are still in contention for their first Champions League knockout appearance since 2016/17. Though they’ll bank on Atletico’s scoring woes in Europe in their pursuit of a third consecutive H2H victory, manager Xabi Alonso has plenty of reason for concern. Since beating Schalke 4-0 on his touchline debut, the Spaniard has won none of his three subsequent games in charge of Leverkusen (D1, L2), conceding 2+ goals on each occasion.