Atletico Madrid vs Liverpool Champions League: Preview and Live Score

Atletico Madrid hosts Liverpool in a seemingly high-profile, entertaining battle on Wednesday (22 October 2008) in a group D Champions League encounter at the Vicente Calderon stadium. With both sides looking to ensure their qualification for the knock-out stages with a victory in the match, it seems to be an exciting tie at a stadium where no English team has ever won a match within 90 minutes. Liverpool’s high-flying form of recent saw them winning 6 out of their last seven 7 matches in all competition, while Atletico Madrid will go into the match on the back of two back-to-back defeats including a 6-1 humiliation away at Barcelona. So, even though Atletico Madrid has the home advantage, Liverpool has very good chance in the match.

Match: Atletico Madrid vs Liverpool; Champions League 2008-2009, Group D

Date: 22 October 2008, Wednesday

Venue: Vicente Calderon stadium

Kick off: 19:45 BST (British Standard Time)

Both sides achieved maximum 6 points from their opening two games in Group D. Liverpool started their Champions League campaign with a 2-1 victory away at Olympique Marseille, following by a 3-1 comfortable victory over PSV Eindhoven at home. Atletico Madrid’s Europe form has been pretty much satisfactory so far and their form in Europe does not resemble their poor domestic form.

Atletico Madrid got off to a good start to their Champions League mission this season with a 3-0 crushing victory against PSV Eindhoven on the road. Back in home for the second match, Atletico defeated Olympique Marseille 2-1. So, Atletico Madrid and Liverpool are jointly leading the point table in Group D with the Spanish club remaining atop the table on better goal difference. In terms of their Champions League performance, you can not draw any bigger distinction, but when it comes to their domestic form of this season, the disparity between their performances becomes apparent.

Liverpool has got their best start to the premier league for the last few seasons. They have been winning matches both at home and away consistently. The Reds are now leading the point table jointly with Chelsea with 20 points from 8 matches and alike Chelsea, Liverpool has remained undefeated so far this season. Liverpool’s current level of confidence was revealed in their last two premier league victories that saw the Reds pulling out two come-from-back victories; first against Manchester City and then against Wigan Athletic. On both occasions, Liverpool won 3-2.

Atletico Madrid, on the other hand, has lost three out of their last four La Liga matches and their recent domestic form is so poor that the fans are furious and claiming for sack of Coach Luis Garcia. Club’s board members have recently indicated that a defeat to Liverpool might prompt them to sack the coach even midway through the season. Atletico Madrid has lost 4 out of their 7 matches in La Liga so far this season and they are currently at the 8^th position in the league table with 9 points, 10 points off leader Valencia. Their 6-1 humiliation has come as a morale-denting defeat which Atletico is yet to get over.

However, Atletico Madrid can be buoyed by UEFA’s decision of lifting two-match ban on playing at their home stadium until the match against Liverpool. UEFA came down hard on Atletico Madrid following racial act of their fans during their 2-1 win against Olympique Marseille. Well, manager Luis Garcia might feel some relief that his boys will be able to face Liverpool at their home stadium.

Liverpool will be without their Spanish forward Fernando Torres who picked up a hamstring injury while representing Spain in world cup qualifying round. Fernando Torres will definitely miss playing against his former club Atletico Madrid. Centre defender Martin Skrtel is also missing out for the match through knee injury. However, Rafael Benitez will have Ryan Babel and Javier Mascherano back to the squad, and Steven Gerrard, Yossi Benayoun and Robbie Keane are all expected to shake off their minor problems in time to face Atletico Madrid.

However, Liverpool does not seem to face much problem due to injury with Captain Steven Gerrard and Dirk Kuyt playing at the top of their form. Steven Gerrard is jointly leading the top scorers’ list jointly with Atletico Madrid’s Argentine international Sergio Aguero as both of them scored 3 goals from the first two matches. Dirk Kuyt has also been in excellent scoring form. In fact, the Dutch international scored 4 goals in his last 3 games. His double strike against Wigan ensured a come back victory at the weekend.

Atletico Madrid also has some injury problems to contend with as Pablo Ibanez and captain Maxi Rodriguez being ruled out of the match. Tomas Ujfalusi is doubtful for the match. However, they have some key players who can produce a match winning performance. Argentine forward Sergio Aguero is certainly one of them. Diego Forlan has returned to action after spending a month on the sideline with injury. Maniche has also been back to the squad. Luis Garcia and Florent Sinama-Pongolle are considered to be the big threat for Liverpool.

Online Live Score and Updates

Here, I am giving some online live score website names from where you can get the live score and updates of the match:

Live Score

Goalzz

Live Football Scores

Goal.com

Footie Scorez

Liverpool seems to be slightly favorite in terms of their recent form, but Atletico Madrid has some players who are capable of producing moments of glory which could destroy Liverpool’s hopes of qualification for the round of 16 after this match. Liverpool also has some players who can destroy any opposition in their days. So, I think, it will be an exciting, hard-fought encounter between Atletico Madrid and Liverpool at the Vicente Calderon stadium.