To say these two are familiar foes is understating it. In fact, by April 14, the two Spanish heavyweights will have played each other three times in seven days.
Ahead of this two-legged quarter-final, Atleti hosted Barcelona in La Liga at the weekend and it was the Catalans who returned home with all three points after goals from Marcus Rashford (42) and Robert Lewandowski secured victory after the hosts were reduced to 10 men following Nico Gonzalez’s red card on the stroke of half time.
The recent head-to-head form doesn’t stop there as the duo also played out a two-legged Copa Del Rey semi-final across February and March. Atleti powered to a 4-0 home win in the first leg but it only just proved enough after Barca won the return 3-0.
Barcelona v Atletico Madrid kick-off time
Barcelona v Atletico kicks off at 8pm BST on Wednesday, April 8 at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona v Atletico Madrid how to watch
The game will be shown live in the UK via TNT Sports 2 and HBO Max. Coverage begins at 7.30pm.
Barcelona team news
Barcelona boss Hansi Flick looks set to be without highly influential winger Raphinha after the Brazilian picked up a hamstring injury during the international break.
Frenkie de Jong has the same problem and is definitely out while Andreas Christensen remains sidelined due to an ACL tear.
Atletico Madrid team news
Marcos Llorente was suspended for the league meeting at the weekend but will come back into the Atleti side here.
Julian Alvarez and Ademola Lookman didn’t start in that 2-1 defeat with Diego Simeone putting more priority on this fixture due to Atleti being out of contention in the title race but secure in fourth.
Veteran goalkeeper Jan Oblak has returned to training and Simeone must be tempted to throw the vastly experienced stopper straight back in.
Barcelona v Atletico Madrid odds
For Wednesday evening’s meeting in the Catalan capital, Barcelona are clear 8/15 favourites to take a first-leg lead. Atletico Madrid are 9/2 to win on the night while the Draw is 18/5.
Barca are big favourites in the ‘to qualify’ market. They’re 4/11 to go through to the last four, with Atleti 11/5.
In the outright betting, Barcelona are 9/2 third favourites while Atletico are way out at 20/1.
Barcelona v Atletico Madrid prediction
This is the third meeting between these two in the UCL and Atletico Madrid have knocked out Barcelona in the previous two. Not only that, they were also at the quarter-final stage (2013/14 and 2015/16).
But more recently, Barcelona have won 10 and drawn one of the last 13 meetings and that includes three wins out of four this season when adding in the 2-1 win at the weekend which completed a league double.
Eight of the last nine head-to-heads have featured at least three goals but the market expects it and Over 2.5 is just 2/5.
But with goals in mind, the best bet here is backing Barcelona and both teams to score at 6/4.
Flick’s side give opponents a chance with their high defensive line and Barca haven’t managed a clean sheet in their last 13 Champions League games.
But they’ve plundered 80 goals in 30 La Liga games this season so have the firepower to outscore their opponents.
Fancy a goalscorer double? Lamine Yamal has netted in his last three European starts while Atleti’s Julian Alvarez boasts 14 goals in his last 17 starts in the competition.
The anytime scorer double is 6/1.
