Overview
Atletico Madrid just surprisingly lost to Leganes in La Liga, thereby ending a streak of 15 consecutive wins in all competitions. Antoine Griezmann was the culprit for Los Rojiblancos when he missed a penalty kick in the 89th minute.
Coach Diego Simeone's team needs to quickly recover because they are about to face a tough opponent, Leverkusen, in the Champions League.
Atletico Madrid need at least one more win to secure their place in the next stage of the Champions League. And two wins would almost certainly secure them a top eight finish and a place in the knockout stages.
Leverkusen are still on a high after defeating Monchengladbach 3-1 in the last round of the Bundesliga. This victory helped coach Xabi Alonso's team have 11 consecutive wins in all competitions. In that series, they overcame many strong opponents such as Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Dortmund.
In the Champions League, the BayArena team is currently ranked fourth and is trying to defend its ticket to the knockout round.
Overall, the balance of power between the two teams at the moment is relatively balanced. They both have solid defenses, while the strikers on the attack line are always ready to explode.
Notably, the head-to-head record between Atletico Madrid and Leverkusen is not much different. In the last 10 encounters, each side won 3 times and 4 matches ended in a draw.
It is likely that the upcoming match between Atletico Madrid and Leverkusen will be tense and dramatic.
Human resources situation
Atletico Madrid will continue to be without Jose Gimenez due to a muscle injury, while Alexander Sorloth is likely to be on the bench. Griezmann and Julian Alvarez will join forces in attack.
On the other side of the front line, Martin Terrier, Jeanuel Belocian, Victor Boniface and Amine Adli will have to sit out. Florian Wirtz is once again Leverkusen's biggest hope and will take on the "number 10" role.
Expected lineup:
Atletico Madrid: Oblak, Galan, Lenglet, Le Normand, Molina, Gallagher, Simeone, De Paul, Barrios, Alvarez, Griezmann.
Bayer Leverkusen: Hradecky, Inkapie, Tapsoba, Mukiele, Grimaldo, Xhaka, Andrich, Frimpong, Wirtz, Garcia, Schick.
The match between Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen takes place at 3:00 a.m. on January 22 (Vietnam time).
