AC Milan and Atletico Madrid will renew their rivalry in the second leg of the 2013-14 Champions League on Tuesday in Spain's capital.
Atletico Madrid enters the match with a 1-0 lead after a hard-fought match in Milan a few weeks ago. In that game, the Italian contingent dominated play and hit a few posts—and Atletico keeper Thibaut Courtois also made a few stunning saves—before Diego Costa of Madrid eventually scored the winner.
With the away goal Atletico Madrid is in complete control of the tie, but the narrow scoreline still gives AC Milan a chance to come away with a win in this round of 16 matchup.
Atletico Madrid
Los Colchoneros enter this bout on a bit of a rough streak. Since defeating Milan, the team has won once in three games; the other two matches were a draw and a loss. The defeat came against Osasuna on the road, a 3-0 result. The draw was a 2-2 scoreline against Real Madrid at home; Atletico was outplayed for most of that game. The most recent game was a 2-0 win over Celta Vigo that featured a brace from David Villa.
The team relies heavily on Villa and Costa to score goals. Villa has recorded 13 Spanish league tallies this far this season while Costa has 21 goals on the year; however, Costa has only scored once in his last four Spanish League matches and is coming off a mediocre debut with the Spanish National Team.
AC Milan
AC Milan sits in 10th in the Italian League and has continued to struggle in recent weeks. The team defeated Sampdoria in the first match since playing Atletico but then suffered two straight defeats against Juventus and Udinese.
The team relies heavily on the efforts of Mario Balotelli, but the mercurial striker has only hit the twine 10 times this year; he has played some of his best soccer in recent weeks with four goals in his last six matches for Milan.
Atletico manager Diego Simeone has noted that Balotelli is the key for Milan, but that the team has many more pieces of concern.
"Balotelli can make the difference, but it is the team which makes him powerful," he said, according to ESPN. "They are also dangerous on the wings through [Mattia] De Sciglio and [Urby] Emanuelson. [Sulley] Muntari has a good shot. With spaces they are a difficult team to play against. We will try and take away those spaces, so they cannot damage us with this game. Our concern is more with where moves start."
Worthy of note is the fact that Milan's season is riding on this match. The team is 20 points out of a top three spot in Italy so the team will not be playing in the UCL next season in all likelihood. The team is not winning the Serie A title and has already been knocked out of the Copa Itallia.
Player to Watch: Balotelli is obviously the most lethal player on the pitch and could ultimately make the difference in this tie. Milan will likely be on the offensive throughout the game, placing more of the spotlight on Balotelli who could potentially change the entire narrative with the first goal of the game. A goal from Milan puts more pressure on Madrid, which could also give AC Milan an even greater advantage moving forward.
Prediction: The teams tie 1-1.
The match kicks off at 2:45 p.m. EST and can be streamed online on Fox Soccer 2 Go. It can also be viewed on Fox Soccer Plus.
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