Atletico Madrid will be looking to return to winning ways in the Champions League when they play host to Union Saint-Gilloise on Tuesday night.
After claiming their maiden continental success of the season at the second time of asking with an emphatic 5-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, Diego Simeone’s side were brought crashing back down to earth with a 4-0 defeat away at Arsenal.
However, since then, Atleti have restored some confidence by defeating both Real Betis and Sevilla in La Liga.
As such, the Spanish heavyweights should be in high spirits ahead of this week’s visit from Union SG.
The Belgian champions hit the ground running in this season’s Champions League with a 3-1 win away at PSV but they have since been soundly beaten 4-0 by both Newcastle and Inter Milan.
However, David Hubert’s team have been ticking along nicely in the Belgian Pro League of late, with Saturday’s 4-1 success away at Zulte Waregem making it three league wins on the spin.
How the bookies view it: Advantage Atletico Madrid
Unsurprisingly, Atletico Madrid come into this matchday four encounter as short-priced 1/4 favourites on BOYLE Sports.
Union Saint-Gilloise are massive 9/1 underdogs on BOYLE Sports while share of the Metropolitano Stadium spoils is an unfancied 9/2 with the same oddsmaker.
Head to head: History book blank
With Union St.Gilloise not being regulars on the Champions League circuit, it’s little surprise that Tuesday night’s tussle will represent the first-ever meeting between the two teams. Atletico Madrid last came up against Belgian opposition when facing Club Brugge in this competition back in 2018.
Players to watch: More joy for Julian?
Having hit seven goals across his last eight appearances for Atletico Madrid, Julian Alvarez looks attractively priced to get on the scoresheet on Tuesday night at 4/5 with Bet365.
Union St.Gilloise will look to Promise David for inspiration on Tuesday night. The Canadian forward is an eye-catching 11/10 on Bet365 to register a minimum of one shot on target during this contest.
Predicted line-ups
Other than Pablo Barrios, Atletico Madrid boss Simeone could have a fully-fit squad to choose from on Tuesday night.
As for the visitors, they also have a relatively clean bill of health, with forward Mohammed Fuseini the only player expected to be missing in the Spanish capital.
Atletico Madrid: Oblak; Llorente, Gimenez, Hancko, Ruggeri; Simeone, Koke, Baena, Gonzalez; Sorloth, Alvarez
Union SG: Scherpen; Mac Allister, Burgess, Leysen; Khalaily, Zorgane, Rasmussen, Niang; Ait El Hadj; Florucz, David
Anything else catch the eye?
Backing Atletico Madrid to win to nil will bring about an appealing 23/20 shot on BOYLE Sports.
This bet would have paid-out in each of the hosts’ last three victories in La Liga, two of which were at home.
It’s also worth noting that the visitors failed to fire when losing to both Newcastle and Inter across the last two rounds of Champions League action.
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