History suggests that Atl\u00e9tico Madrid will have a tough task defeating Real Madrid in the Champions League Round of 16. However, coach Diego Simeone believes his team has a real chance to end its disastrous record against their city rivals.<\/p>\n
The two teams have met in the Champions League four times in the past 11 seasons, with Atl\u00e9tico losing on every occasion, most notably in the finals of 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n
As they head into the latest chapter of this rivalry on Europe’s biggest stage, Atl\u00e9tico holds a slight advantage over Real Madrid, currently sitting second in La Liga, two points ahead of their rivals.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters ahead of Tuesday\u2019s match at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u, Simeone said:
\n\u201cWe are facing a team we respect a lot. We know our strengths, we will play to our full potential, and we will try to take them down. History is there, and Real Madrid\u2019s history in the Champions League is extraordinary. But tomorrow, we will certainly have a new opportunity. I always place Barcelona and Real Madrid in the position they deserve because of their long history, but we are developing, and that is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simeone described the encounter as a special occasion for all involved:
\n\u201cIt will be a great event for the city and for Spain, with one of its clubs reaching the quarter-finals. It is also important for us, as we will play and enjoy the match.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Atl\u00e9tico hopes to defeat Real Madrid, they will need their striker Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez (25) to be at his best.<\/p>\n
The Argentine international, who scored in Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s 1-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, has netted 21 goals across all competitions since joining from Manchester City in August for a \u20ac75 million transfer fee.<\/p>\n
Simeone praised \u00c1lvarez, saying:
\n\u201cHe is still young and needs to keep going in this direction. He has areas to improve. We hope the team and coaching staff can help him continue developing. He looks full of energy, enthusiasm, and determination to give more, and that will only enhance his progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
History suggests that Atl\u00e9tico Madrid will have a tough task defeating Real Madrid in the Champions League Round of 16. However, coach Diego Simeone believes his team has a real chance to end its disastrous record against their city rivals. The two teams have met in the Champions League four times in the past 11 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43993,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43990\/revisions\/43993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}