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Man City vs Atletico Madrid news: Can Simeone stun Pep again in the Champions League?

Revenge will be a dish best served cold for Pep Guardiola who saw Diego Simeone's Atletico eliminate his Bayern side at the semi-final stage.

Last year's beaten finalists Manchester City are big favourites to win the first leg of this Champions League quarter-final as they look to go one better this season.

Diego Simeone's side haven't been as strong in defence as they usually are this season, but they'll bring all their dark arts with them back to Manchester having earned a 1-0 win at Old Trafford to get through the last round.

Pep Guardiola has sarcastically joked about making curious selection changes but there's no doubt his teams have suffered from a couple of those in previous Champions League campaigns - there were even questions raised about his final selection against Chelsea.

And the pressure of knowing just what Simeone will bring may force him to do it again. However, he'd be wise to stick to his tried and tested line-up and just guard against the storm of petulance the arch wind-up merchants Atletico will throw at them.

There's no away goals this time for Simeone, which is how his Atleti knocked Pep's Bayern out in the semi-finals in 2016. Across the 2-2 aggregate draw, the Spanish side had just 27% possession and 18 shots to Munich's 53.

Simeone will be out for something similar this time around.

When: Tuesday, April 5, 19:45 BST

Where: Etihad Stadium, Manchester

Where to watch: BT Sport 2

Or follow live updates via our match centre

Who is the referee for Man City vs Atletico Madrid?

Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs will be in charge at the Etihad and it'll be his second Man City game this season having awarded them a penalty in their 5-1 win at Club Bruges in October.
He's dished out 21 yellow cards in four Champions League games this season - and incredibly made 11 bookings in Sevilla's game against Lille.

Recent form

Man City have just had a draw and defeat in their last seven Premier League games which has opened the door for Liverpool to close the gap, but it's just a blip in an otherwise spectacular run of winning form.

In the Champions League, City have only lost one of their last seven knockout games, although it was last year's final defeat against Chelsea.

Guardiola has in fact the best win percentage in Champions League knockout games since he took charge at City with 14 wins from 22 matches so his side will be fully expecting to add another victory on Tuesday.
Atletico have just found a nice rhythm after stringing six straight wins together including three clean sheets so there are signs that they are getting back to their stingy best defensively.

Man Utd did show you can get after this Atletico side though and overall they've conceded far more goals than usual in La Liga this season - far more than Real Madrid and even Barcelona.

Players in form

City spread their goals around but Riyad Mahrez has been the pick of the bunch this season with 22 goals in all competitions including six in the Champions League.

Kevin De Bruyne has had his scoring boots on of late as well with four goals in his last four starts and with Atleti's deep-lying defensive structure, watch out for the Belgian taking plenty of pot shots.

Kevin de Bruyne Man City Jan22

For Atleti, Antoine Griezmann is their all-time leading Champions League scorer and also has four in his last six, including scoring twice against Liverpool in the group stages.

Joao Felix looked a talent against Man Utd and he's got a knack for scoring early on in games, with seven of the 11 goals he's notched this season being the first goal of the match.

Six of Felix's goals have come inside the first 11 minutes of games so City need to keep an eye on him early on.

Manager's thoughts

Man City boss Pep Guardiola was in a particularly sarcastic mood in his pre-match press conference when quizzed on his previous record of making questionable selections in the Champions League.

"In the Champions League always I overthink. New tactics, tomorrow you will see a new one. We will play with 12 tomorrow!

"I overthink a lot, that's why I have very good results in the Champions League. It would be boring if I always played the same way.
"That's why I overthink and create stupid tactics."

Predicted Man City vs Atletico Madrid teams

Man City are still missing Ruben Dias and will hope to have John Stones fit to play again at the heart of the defence.

John Stones left the England camp as a precaution

With Kyle Walker still suspended, Guardiola could opt to play Stones at right-back as he did against Sporting Lisbon, or switch Joao Cancelo and bring in Oleksandr Zinchenko on the left.

Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez will likely start after being on the bench at Burnley. Phil Foden came off after an hour at Turf Moor so may well start though Jack Grealish could get the nod having remained on the bench.

Simeone has Koke and Angel Correa back from domestic suspension. Griezmann is expected to partner Felix up front despite Luis Suarez banging in two goals during a half-hour cameo from the bench at the weekend.

Man City possible line-up: Ederson, Cancelo, Stones, Laporte, Zinchenko, Gundogan, Rodri, De Bruyne, Silva, Foden, Mahrez.

Atletico Madrid possible line-up: Oblak, Llorente, Savic, Mandava, Hermoso, Lodi, De Paul, Kondogbia, Koke, Felix, Griezmann.

Man City vs Atletico Madrid prediction

Atletico will try to make this as scrappy as possible, you know what you're getting with them in big knockout games. Putting City off their passing rhythm will be priority number one.

Don't rule out a red card here as five of Atleti's six group games contained a red card - seven in all with the Spanish side getting three and the opposition four.

So it's a night for cool heads for City to avoid getting drawn into a street fight. If they take their eyes off the ball then Atletico have more than enough firepower to put any chances away clinically.

It's unlikely the tie will be over after the first leg but City's record at home suggests that should be able to head off to Spain with a lead, even if just a slender one.
READ MORE: Sarcastic Guardiola jokes at making Man City changes

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