Atletico Madrid Preview
After some tremendous comebacks in the Premier League in recent matches, we now switch our attentions to the Champions League, we have maxiumum points from our first couple of games in the group stage and we now face a double header with a side that also boasts the same amount of points in the shape of Spanish club Atletico Madrid.
Last week Uefa had tried to move this game to a different venue 300km from the Vicente Calderon stadium, after crowd trouble marred the Spanish clubs recent victory over French side Marseille. This caused uproar amongst Liverpool fans who were travelling to the Spanish capital for the game, eventually the powers that be at Uefa seen sense and the game now goes ahead at its correct venue.
Atletico Madrid will be a tough test for the reds tonight, they are the toughest opposition possible coming out of pot 4 from the draw when it was originally made and so its proved, as they have taken the Champions League by storm so far with a convincing 3-0 away success at Psv Eindhoven and then they followed it up with a victory over Marseille 2-1 at home.
They boast some impressive players, Argentine Kun Aguero is the star but they have 2 quality Portuguese players in Simao and Maniche, they also boast 2 ex reds in the form of Florent Sinama Pongolle and not forgetting Luis Garcia who had a love hate relationship with the Liverpool fans during this spell at Anfield. Add to that ex United frontman Diego Forlan, who has done really well in Spain and you can see that they are a talented bunch.
One thing i will say though is that they aren't the best defensively or in the midfield area and this is where Liverpool should be able to control the game. Yes they will be a threat going forward but hopefully we can nullify their threats by dictating the tempo of the play, Xabi Alonso could have a big role to play tonight, as he likes to dictate affairs and im sure tonight is right up his street.
Atleti are coming into the game aswell on the back of a Madrid derby defeat to Real, they conceded a penalty in the 6th minute of stoppage time in the most cruel way, they've also recently been massacred in the Nou Camp by Barcelona 6-1.
It will be interesting to see what side Rafa selects for this game, i think the forward line of Kuyt and Keane worked quite well Saturday against Wigan but i do feel that Rafa will bring Mascherano into the side tonight and push Kuyt out wide on the right replacing Pennant, Gerrard will probably play just off Keane or maybe Kuyt and Gerrard will interchange during the game?...Riera is likely to play on the left side and the rest of the team should be the same with Reina, Arbeloa, Dossena, Carragher and Agger making up the defence.
I think we can win this game if we go out there with the right mentality, sure Atleti will be dangerous going forward but i see flaws in their armoury to be honest and i can see the reds scoring a few tonight, im going to go for a 2-1 victory for Liverpool with Kuyt and Gerrard getting on the scoresheet, ive got a feeling one of our ex players will score against us aswell tonight, im going to say the in form Florent Sinama Pongolle, he has been banging the goals in for the Spaniards so far this season since his move from Recreativo Huelva and his clever forward play can result in him striking for Madrid.
Prediction: Ateltico Madrid 1-2 Liverpool (Pongolle / Kuyt, Gerrard)
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3-1 redmen: Kuyt, Keane, Gerrard