Atl. Madrid vs FC Porto prediction: EUROPE: Champions League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2022-09-06 19:00.
Now in his second-decade at Atlético Madrid, Diego Simeone’s troops line up for a tenth-successive UEFA Champions League (UCL) campaign, with Simeone’s side appearing to get a favourable draw in Group B. Atléti’s long-term goal has been to go one better than their UCL final loss in 2015/16, but they saw their league and continental competition strength dissipate last season, falling at the quarter-final stage against Manchester City and failing to mount a La Liga (LL) title challenge, finishing a distant third.
A big reason for their failure was arguably their defence, which some tagged as the ‘’worst in Simeone’s era’’, as Atlético slumped to tenth-best in terms of LL clean sheets last season. They bring mixed recent form (W2, D1, L1) into this tie against Portuguese champions Porto and having lost their last home game to Villarreal (2-0), Atlético will want to regain the defensive prowess in Europe that saw them keep five successive knockout stage home shutouts in their triumphant 2017/18 UEFA Europa League campaign.
Portuguese champions Porto are no pushovers, but have perpetually struggled to recreate the José Mourinho-era that saw them become UCL winners in 2003/04. Having fallen at the group stage for two successive campaigns, the Porto coaching staff may be running down the touchline in Mourinho-esque style if they can triumph here, as they have only won one of their previous five away games in the competition (D2, L2), although that did include a 0-0 away stalemate to Atlético last year.
That result makes up a bleak run of just seven wins from 25 (D5, L13) contests against Spanish sides in the UCL proper, while Porto manager Sérgio Conceição’s record against Simeone also offers little encouragement (D1, L1). Porto are an experienced UCL outfit though, with only Real Madrid and Barcelona (26) featuring in more UCL group stage campaigns than them, and could be a tricky opponent here for Atléti especially after the boost of a 2-0 away victory at Gil Vicente at the weekend.
Players to watch: Young star João Félix scored in Atlético’s 1-1 UCL last-16 home draw to Manchester United last season, but hasn’t found the net for his side since April. Meanwhile, as well as grabbing a goal in Porto’s last away league victory, Mehdi Taremi also got one of the only two goals scored by his side in their last four UCL away trips.
Hot stat: Atlético have failed to score in five of their last eight UCL home ties.