Bayer Leverkusen Xabi AlonsoBundesliga champion, and PSG of Luis EnriqueLigue 1 champion, They will be Atlético’s most dangerous rivals in the group stage of the Champions League, after a draw that did not leave the red and white team in a bad positionThey will face Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Slovan Bratislava in Madrid and away against PSG, Benfica, Salzburg and Sparta Prague.
Athletics He will make his debut in the new format against Leipzig at the Metropolitano. Curious grimace of fate since Simeone will face Belgian Arthur Vermeerenwho has just obtained a passport for the former East German team. Leizpig was Atlético’s executioner in the Champions League round of 16 of the 19-20 season, in the only match played in the stadium. Jose Alvalade from Portugal behind closed doors due to the covid pandemic.
He His first trip will be to Paris, where Luis Enrique’s PSG awaits him.in an unprecedented duel in the highest European competition, opposite Atlético-Leverkusen which will then be played at the Metropolitano, since the Germans were already in Madrid two seasons ago in a match of sad memory in which Carrasco missed a penalty at the last moment of extra time.
Portuguese Benfica, with veterans Otamendi And Tell me Mariaand which has just been transferred to Joao Neves precisely at PSG, will be the next challenge for those of Simeonewho will go to the stadium The Light, in Lisbon, the same scenario in which They lost the 2014 Champions League final.
From there, the calendar relaxes. The Canadian’s Lille Jonathan David, one of the forwards who was in the red and white arena this summer, will be the next visitor to the Metropolitano, so it’s time to go to the Red Bull Arena to face the Austrian Salzburg of the sought-after Ivorian center forward Karim Konatefrom there to the Metropolitano to play against Slovan Bratislava, with an old acquaintance of the red and white fans as Serbian centre forward Ivan Saponjicarrived at Atlético as part of the Joao Félix signing operation in 2019. The first phase will say goodbye to the Epet Arena in Prague against Sparta, a team loaded with young promises like the international central defender Martin Vitik21 years old.
On paper Atletico should have no problem overcoming the first phasebut traditionally the team tends to do worse in easy groups than in difficult ones. What is clear, of course, is that not being present in the round of 16 would be a real failure.
Atlético’s journey:
- Leipzig (home)
- PSG (absent)
- Leverkusen (home)
- Benfica (outgoing)
- Lille (at home)
- Salzburg (exit)
- Slovan Bratislava (home)
- Sparta Prague (release)
