Atletico Madrid will face Andoni Iraola's Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night. Diego Simeone has warned his players to be ready for a hostile atmosphere, after a lapse in concentration contributed to their weekend defeat.
Atletico lost 3-0 at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, conceding two goals in three second-half minutes. A year ago, they travelled to Merseyside for their opening Champions League fixture and fell 2-0 behind within six minutes. They recovered to 2-2 but lost to a late Virgil van Dijk goal in added time.
Atleti have kept just one clean sheet in their past 16 Champions League matches and have lost on each of their last five visits to England.
"I don’t think it was (a lack of) motivation what happened to us in Bilbao, it was a lack of awareness, switching off," said Simeone, whose team reached the semi-finals last season. "We are coming into a marvellous stadium, a great atmosphere, we have to look at the start of the game as it will be full on."
Simeone also said transfer speculation around forward Julian Alvarez was unhelpful before the window shut. Alvarez missed two days of training citing illness after learning he would not be allowed to join Barcelona. He is unlikely to start, as is striker Jonathan David, who signed on loan from Juventus on 1 September and has made only two substitute appearances. Both are expected to play some part.
"Jonathan has only just arrived, Julian is getting better. I don’t see he could start tomorrow, but I am sure he could help at some point in the game," Simeone added.
Atleti left Anfield empty-handed last season, but they have enjoyed success on Merseyside before. In 2020, Simeone's men knocked Liverpool out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage, winning 3-2 at Anfield after extra time to seal a 4-2 aggregate win after a 1-0 victory in the opening leg in Madrid.
Simeone will hope for a repeat on Wednesday against a Liverpool side that beat Ipswich 2-0 on Friday to seal Andoni Iraola's first win since replacing Arne Slot.
Source: www.independent.co.uk — Read the original article
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