Atletico Madrid vs Juventus
UEFA Champions League, KO: 20:00 Sep 18, 2019, Wanda Metropolitano Stadium
ATLETICO will be out exact some form of revenge when Juventus visit the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium on Wednesday night.
Diego Simeone's men looked to have set themselves up for a crack at last year's quarter-finals with a 2-0 first leg lead against the Old Lady. But Ronaldo had other ideas and turned the two-goal deficit around almost single-handedly with yet another Champions League hat-trick.
Once again Ronaldo will of course, be the dangerman. He's scored all of Juve's last five goals in the competition and will be aiming to add to his record haul of 126 Champions League goals. He's faced Atlético 33 times in all competitions, scoring 25 goals and is 15/4 to open the scoring in this one. 11 of those 25 have been scored away from home and he's notched four hat-tricks against Atletico (his record is five v Sevilla) so they can't say they've not been warned.
Atleti are a formidable team at home in the Champions League however. They've won their last nine in Madrid, conceding just once, and the only team to beat them in the last 22 matches on their own turf is Chelsea in 2017.
They've made a steady, if unspectacular start to the season in La Liga, with three routine wins from four but they fell to their first defeat of the campaign in San Sebastián on Saturday. Real Sociedad caught them on the hop with two second half goals and Los Colchoneros were unable to respond.
Two of Atleti's wins have been by a goal to nil and with the talismanic Greizmann now departed that might be a familiar theme for them this term. They'll look to Diego Costa and Alvaro Morata to fill that void but the Frenchman's absence will be keenly felt whilst Portuguese wonderkid João Félix continues to find his feet.
Juve haven't quite clicked in to gear themselves yet this season under Maurizio Sarri. But for an injury-time own goal by Kalidou Koulibaly they'd be on five points from nine after they snatched victory at the death having squandered a three-goal lead to Napoli a few weeks ago. They toiled to a 0-0 draw at Fiorentina at the weekend whilst fielding a strong starting XI, so they're far from firing on all cylinders.
Onlookers from the UK might enjoy the North London subplot in Madrid; Kieran Trippier, formerly of Spurs and now of Atletico could line up against former Gunner Aaron Ramsay who is now plying his trade in Turin. Ramsay is 4/1 (Bet365) to mark his Juventus Champions League debut with a goal if selected.
From a betting perspective this looks tough to call. It's hard to see past Atleti's brilliant home record but if anyone is going to make them crack it's Ronaldo. I can't see many goals in this though so I'm not surprised to see under 2.5 goals as short as 8/15.
On the basis that this could be a tight affair, a goal-less first half makes plenty of appeal at 11/8. Neither side scored at the weekend and defences could be on top in the opening stages of the match. If you agree with this thinking you may prefer the 5/6 on offer for no goal before the 34th minute at Bet365.
On the bookings front it's worth noting that both meetings last season saw Atletico win the card count 3-1. Dutch referee Danny Makkelie takes charge in Madrid and he's been a Champions League referee for a good few seasons. He's not what you'd term card-happy but he's dished out an average of 3.23 cards per match in the competition over the last three seasons.
As yet, there are few card markets priced up but if you can get aywhere near 3/4 or 5/6 on there being over 3.5 cards then I'd recommend taking it.
This UEFA Champions League match between Atletico Madrid and Juventus will be played on Sep 18, 2019 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Atletico Madrid vs Juventus prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
