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In a week full of great Champions League action, the match-up of Milan and Atletico Madrid might not get a lot of attention. Everyone will be watching games like PSG versus Manchester City or Juventus versus Chelsea. However, that is underestimating the quality that will take to the field of San Siro on Tuesday. Atletico is still the Spanish champion and Milan is still a great team that opened the Serie A season in a great way.
Additionally, Milan will be looking to avenge the defeat they suffered in the first game. Losing to Liverpool after leading 2-1 must have been a tough experience for the fairly young Milan squad and a bounce-back game against Atleti will do wonders. Atletico, on the other hand, did not manage to break through a tough Porto team and will be looking to win and put themselves in a better position for the first two spots.
Here are three predictions and things to look for in the upcoming Champions League match.
Milan v Atletico Madrid predictions
Will Atletico Madrid respond to critics in a big way after a series of poor performances?
The same team that won the Spanish league last season is now in a major crisis. After a summer of only losing Saul who was not performing well anyway and adding Antoine Griezmann, Atleti started the season well but fell off in the last few games. Los Colchoneros barely scraped through against Espanyol, with a late winner from Thomas Lemar. They drew against Athletic Bilbao and Porto, had to rely on two late Luis Suarez goals to beat Getafe, and lost to Deportivo Alaves in the last few games.
Once again, this is, with some minor changes, the same team that beat out both Barcelona and Real Madrid for the title last year. Now, it seems like coach Diego Simeone simply cannot put it together in a coherent way. The squad is conceding early goals and relying on the heroics of their attackers to save points.
All of this is coming right before a stretch of tough games. Atleti will play Milan in the week in Champions League then Barcelona at the weekend. After that, they will face a tough game versus Granada, followed by Liverpool and Real Sociedad, back to back. Neither of these teams will bow down to the champions and if Simeone does not pull it through versus Milan, his squad might be out of any serious title contention after a few games in both competitions. He does have the ability and coaching knowledge to do it, so it might happen in this game versus Milan.
Can Milan confirm good games versus lesser opposition in a game against a good opponent?
Milan has started the season very strong in Serie A. They have played six games and won five of them, only drawing with Juventus. As it was mentioned above, the only loss in the season came at Anfield, where Liverpool turned around a 2-1 and won 3-2 in the Champions League. However, while not an issue yet, Milan is having trouble with stronger opposition.
The five wins in six games came against Spezia, Venezia, Cagliari, Sampdoria and Lazio. While Lazio can be considered a stronger opponent, they are also having a tough start, with two draws and a loss in five games. It is good, of course, that Milan can take care of business against the opponents they should be beating, but even those defeats did not instill a lot of confidence. Cagliari and Lazio are, more or less, the only games where Milan looked out of this world.
They should be looking to make this Champions League clash a tone-setting game. Of course, it is difficult to go through this stable and consistent Atletico squad. However, their form can give Milan fans a lot of confidence and give Milan an opportunity to be in a better position for the knockout round spots.
Should the neutrals avoid this game?
While the names are big, there is every possibility that this game will not provide a lot of action. Atletico under Cholo Simeone is not the most attacking team in the world, while Milan still does not have the talent that would glue people to their TVs. Of course, there is every chance that this is a Champions League classic, due to Atletico's poor form that has to be turned around at one point, and in football, there is no better setting than this.
Milan, on the other hand, will have an eleven of mostly young players who are hungry to prove themselves against good opposition. There are some factors that point to an interesting match. However, due to the experience of watching Atleti, it is tough to see this game going for more than one or two goals, at best.
