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Group B was always going to be tough to navigate with Liverpool and Porto also in contention, though Milan will be particularly disappointed with their haul of one point from a possible 12 so far.
Nothing but a victory will do for the Rossoneri here, but they head into this fixture winless in three appearances and with an extensive injury list.
Stalemates with Porto and Inter Milan were followed by a 4-3 defeat to Fiorentina at the weekend, bringing an end to their unbeaten start to the season domestically.
In defence, veteran Ciprian Tatarusanu continues to deputise for Mike Maignan in goal and will want to put his weekend display firmly behind him.
Davide Calabria is sidelined and so Pierre Kalulu will continue at right-back, while Stefano Pioli has a decision to make in the absence of Fikayo Tomori.
Matteo Gabbia started alongside Simon Kjaer in the weekend defeat to Fiorentina, but struggled to contain Dusan Vlahovic, so Alessio Romagnoli should get the nod here.
Further forwards, Olivier Giroud may well come into the team to give Zlatan Ibrahimovic a rest with a short turnaround between games. Ante Rebic and Samu Castillejo are unavailable out wide, so Raphael Leao and Alexis Saelemaekers should start on the flanks, while one of Franck Kessie or Sandro Tonali could be rested with Ismael Bennacer given a chance in midfield.
Liverpool have already won the group with plenty to spare, but Atletico Madrid are only a single point behind Porto and face the latter in their final game, so their prospects of qualifying for the knockouts aren’t so remote.
Diego Simeone also has Antoine Griezmann available again after suspension, which is just as well with Joao Felix injured and Luis Suarez seeing his form tail off recently.
In defence, right-back Kieran Trippier is absent with a shoulder injury and centre-back Felipe is suspended, so one of Sime Vrsaljko or Marcos Llorente should feature out wide, while Jose Gimenez will return in the middle.
However, with key figures available, Atletico will fancy their chances of overcoming some poor form of late.
Atletico To Win By 1 Goals
Diego Simeone’s side have won just twice across their past seven outings, though this has included a pair of clashes with Liverpool, as well as domestic games with top-half sides Real Sociedad, Real Betis, Valencia and Osasuna.
On home turf alone, Atletico are W10-D5-L1 since the start of March, and can take advantage of a Milan side weakened by injuries.
Atletico To Win 2-1
Milan are W14-D4-L4 since the start of May, with all four defeats they’ve suffered coming by one-goal margins.
That includes a 2-1 defeat in the reverse fixture with Atletico, where they were hampered by Frank Kessie seeing red inside half an hour.
Over the same time period, 10 of Atletico’s 12 victories have finished either 1-0 or 2-1, with seven finishing in the latter scoreline.
Atletico have won all three encounters with Milan since 2014 and should just shade this contest.
PREDICTIONS:
ATLETICO TO WIN BY 1 GOAL
ATLETICO TO WIN 2-1
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