Atletico Madrid and Chelsea will lock horns in Bucharest in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 round on Tuesday. The kick-off is at 21:00 CET.

Preview

Even though Atletico are at the top of the La Liga table right now, three points ahead of second-placed Real Madrid and with a game in hand, Diego Simeone's men will take on Chelsea on the back of a two-game streak without a win in the Spanish top flight. Funnily enough, Atleti failed to defeat Levante twice in the space of just four days last week as Wednesday's 1-1 draw in the postponed match of the matchday 2 was followed by a surprising 2-0 home defeat in the matchday 24 on Saturday.

The Blues, for their part, are yet to suffer a loss in each of the seven games across all competitions since Thomas Tuchel's appointment at the helm of the club last month. The West London outfit, however, shared points with Southampton over the weekend (1-1) and thus dropped to fifth in the Premier League table.

Jose Gimenez was unabale to finish Saturday's loss at the hands of Levante due to a muscle injury and is set to miss this encounter for the hosts as well as Yannick Carrasco who remains on the sidelines. Hector Herrera is also unavailable after testing positive for Covid-19.

Thiago Silva, meanwhile, is the only confirmed absentee in Tuchel's squad.

Prediction

Atletico have been stripped of their home advantage in this two-legged tie as the fixture will take place in Romania due to coronavirus restrictions. Simeone's men will be desperate to secure themselves some advantage over the Blues ahead of the return clash in London in March. Chelsea, however, will also try to capitalize on the fact that Atleti 'host' them away from Madrid. Hence, we can envisage this match to end in a battling draw.

Tip

Both teams to score at 2.22 with 1XBET.