Atletico Madrid vs Liverpool: Match preview with betting tips

Liverpool will look to bring home a positive result when they travel to Atletico Madrid for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday night.

The Reds have been in formidable form throughout the season as they extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to a staggering 25 points with a 1-0 win at Norwich City on Saturday afternoon.

That victory at Carrow Road made it 25 wins from 26 league games this season with only Manchester United managing to take a point off Liverpool so they are certainly the most in-form team in Europe right now.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are the reigning European champions after winning the Champions League last season and they’ll be confident of seeing-off a struggling Atletico Madrid side over two legs to book their place in the quarter-finals of this years competition.

Atletico are way off the pace in the La Liga title race and head into tomorrow’s match having won just one of their last seven games in all competitions so Diego Simeone will be demanding an improved display from his team.

Team news

Liverpool have no fresh injury problems to deal with and Klopp has a healthy squad to choose from as Xherdan Shaqiri is the only significant absentee with the attacker still nursing a calf injury.

Sadio Mane is set to be recalled after coming off the bench to score the winner against Norwich at the weekend having recovered from a thigh problem that had kept him out of Liverpool’s previous four games.

James Milner is also pushing for a recall after overcoming a hamstring strain but he may have to settle for a place on the bench with Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Gini Wijnaldum, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all vying for midfield slots.

As for Atletico, they’ll be without Joao Felix and Diego Costa while former Tottenham right-back Kieran Trippier misses out with a groin issue.

Betting tips & prediction

Liverpool are absolutely flying and are arguably the best team on the planet right now so it’s no shock that the majority of casino sites and bookmakers have the Reds’ priced at 11/10 to win the first leg in Madrid tomorrow night.

Atletico can be backed at odds of 5/2 to claim victory on home soil while cansportsbetting are offering odds of 9/4 on the draw – which looks like a solid bet. Simeone’s sides are always hard to beat so this certainly won’t be an easy game for Liverpool and I think Klopp would take a draw back to Anfield. A 1-1 draw can be backed at 5/1 and that’s our prediction for this game.