By Antony Jordan
The first leg of the first Champions League Semi Final clash plays at the Bernabeu this Tuesday evening as we’re treated the third Madrid derby of the season so far. It is the home team that has had the better luck during this campaign with a 3-0 win at the Estadio Vicente Calderón in November before the sides shared the spoils on this ground at the start of April in a 1-1 draw.
Real have never lost to their local rivals in Europe, but can they continue this record going or will Atlético be able to break this hoodoo on Tuesday night? We preview this first leg of the final four stage of the Champions League with online sportsbook Bet365.com to highlight our best Champions League picks for this match.
Real Madrid v Atlético Madrid Match Odds:
Real to win – 1.75
Draw – 3.75
Atlético to win – 4.50
Team News:
Zinedine Zidane will be the happier of the two managers for this Madrid Derby match as he has only two players on the sidelines in Pepe and Gareth Bale with rib and calf injuries. Diego Simone, on the other hand, is in deep trouble as he lost the third of his first choice defenders at the weekend as Jose Gimenez suffered a thigh injury. He now joins Sime Vrsaljko and Juanfran out of this match and sees Atlético having continued their injury troubles this season as Gimenez is the 18th player of the campaign to spend time out of the squad with injury issues.
Form Guide:
The home side come into this clash having suffered just a single defeat in their last 15 matches home and away in all competitions, but that defeat did come on home soil as they were beaten 3-2 by Barcelona on this ground. Despite their overall good record their home performances have not been the best recently as they finished 2-1 down in the last stage of this competition to Bayern Munich before scoring three times in extra time to progress to this match and they needed a late winner against Valencia at the weekend even though they played a strong side. Prior to this trio of clashes they drew 1-1 with their midweek guests, but can they find the performance that matches their results at The Bernabeu this time around?
Atlético had a good weekend as they won 5-0 away at Las Palmas to keep ahead of Sevilla in the battle for third place in the Spanish La Liga and this has seen them continue unbeaten on their travels in 2017. They have won eight and drawn seven of their 15 away games in all competitions this year so far and only the match against their rivals and hosts this week plus the match at Leicester in the last round of this competition are the only times they have conceded goals in the last two months on the road, but with a number their first choice defenders missing can they keep up their excellent away defensive record?
Head-to-head:
These sides have met in Europe on four occasions over the past three years with Real winning two Champions League finals after 120 minutes of football and edging their rivals out by a single goal in the last eight stage too. The 2014 and 2016 finals saw the games end 1-1 before Real triumphed 4-1 and on penalties respectively. The last eight stage clashes in between these two finals saw a 0-0 draw at Atlético before Real progressed to the final four stage with an 88th minute winner on home soil. These show that there is regularly very few goals scored between the sides and only one of the last seven meetings in both domestic and European competition between the sides has seen three or more goals.
Prediction:
As the recent history between these teams shows, we expect this be another fraught and closely contested match but with Real having netted 16 goals in their five home Champions League matches this season and Atlético struggling with fit defenders for this match we can see only one side holding the advantage at the halfway stage of the tie.
Our best Real Madrid v Atlético Madrid bet is back the home win @ 1.75 in the Bet365 Sportsbook!