Atletico Madrid v Barcelona: Line-ups, stats and preview

Hansi Flick wants Barcelona to prioritise pressurising Atletico Madrid when the five-time European champions make a second attempt this season to overturn a first-leg deficit at home to Diego Simeone’s side.

Trailing 4-0 from the first leg in the Copa del Rey semi-finals, Barca went out despite a 3-0 win over Atleti on March 3 but know the same result would send them to a semi-final against Sporting or Arsenal this time.

“If they don’t have that pressure, they play well and it’s not easy to defend against them,” Flick said, analysing familiar opponents.

“We need to have a good connection between our players. As I said before, some matches are decided in moments… that’s football and we’ll see if things go our way. Fingers crossed.”

Barca produced 15 of the 20 attempts between the teams and eight of the 11 on target last Wednesday but had Pau Cubarsi dismissed before Julian Alvarez and Alexander Sorloth gave Atleti a 2-0 victory.

“We are convinced of what we have to do and what we need to do,” declared Simeone. “We are going to go for it.

“Our objective is to move forward and we will play the match to achieve that. Everything we imagine before the match might just be imagination.

“But then the game starts and everything we can think about fades away. What remains is faith, hoping that the team continues to perform as it has been, and confidence in what we want.”

Atletico Madrid v Barcelona team news

Jose Maria Giménez (unspecified) and David Hancko (ankle) are injured for Atleti. Fellow defender Marc Pubill is banned.

Goalkeeper Jan Oblak (muscular) and midfielders Pablo Barrios (thigh) and Johnny Cardoso (adductor) are doubts.

Thiago Almada, Alex Baena, Barrios, Clement Lenglet, Robin Le Normand, Marcos Llorente, Matteo Ruggeri and Giuliano Simeone are each a booking away from a suspension in the competition.

Cubarsi is suspended and defender Andreas Christensen (knee) is injured for Barcelona, who also have midfielder Marc Bernal (ankle) and forward Raphinha sidelined.

Left-back Gerard Martin is a doubt after suffering an ankle injury in the 4-1 home win over Espanyol in La Liga on Saturday.

Marc Casado, Joao Cancelo, Fermin Lopez, Martin and Lamine Yamal must avoid cautions or face bans.

Atletico Madrid v Barcelona predicted line-ups

Atletico Madrid starting XI: Juan Musso, Nahuel Molina, Robin Le Normand, Clement Lenglet, Matteo Ruggeri, Marcos Llorente, Koke, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann, Ademola Lookman, Julian Alvarez

Barcelona starting XI: Joan Garcia, Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Gerard Martin, Joao Cancelo, Eric Garcia, Pedri, Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Marcus Rashford, Robert Lewandowski

Where to watch Atletico Madrid v Barcelona: TV and online streams

Kick-off on Tuesday is at 20:00 BST (15:00 ET / 12:00 PT). Live TV coverage in the UK is on TNT Sports 1.

Streaming is on the HBO Max app. TNT Sports costs £30.99 a month and is available on a vast range of devices including smart TVs and gaming consoles.

Atletico Madrid v Barcelona stats

• This will be the sixth time these sides have met this season (twice each in La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League), which is their most meetings in a single campaign since 2013/14 (6). Only in 1985/86 have they faced more than six times in the same season (8)
• The last time Atleti beat Barca three times in the same campaign was in 1995/96
• Since the start of last season, half of Atleti’s home defeats at the have been against Barcelona (3/6), making Barca the only away side to win there more than once in this period (3), with Real Betis, Lille and Bodo/Glimt the only other teams to win there at all since the start of 2024/25 (one each)
• Barcelona’s 2-0 defeat to Atleti at Camp Nou was the 195th time in Champions League history that a team has lost the first leg of a knockout stage tie at home by at least two goals, with only two of the previous 194 progressing to the next round – Manchester United against PSG in 2018/19 and Ajax against Benfica in 1968/69
• Atletico Madrid have won five of their six Champions League home games this season (L1), while no side has scored more home goals this term than them (20)
• No side have conceded more goals in the Champions League since the start of last season than Barcelona (43), shipping goals in each of their last 14 matches. No Spanish side has ever going 15 games without a clean sheet in the competition
• Alvarez has nine goals in the Champions League this season, which is the most by an Atleti player in a single campaign in the competition’s history
• The only player to reach double figures in a single European campaign for the club (excluding qualifiers) is Radamel Falcao (12 in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League)
• Alvarez has applied more high-intensity pressures than any other player in the Champions League this season (767). Only Olympiacos’s Ayoub El Kaabi (123) has applied more in the opposition box than the Argentina forward (116)
• Lamine Yamal leads all Barcelona players for successful dribbles (37) and total shots (32) in the Champions League this season
• No player has created more chances for the club in the 2025/26 competition than the 18-year-old (20). Only Fermin Lopez (10) has been directly involved in more goals (9 – 5 goals, 4 assists)

Atletico Madrid v Barcelona prediction

Atletico Madrid 1-2 Barcelona

Barca have failed to win three of their five away matches in this season’s competition, beating Newcastle 2-1 and Sparta Praha 4-2 in those victories on the road. Against an Atleti side with an incentive to show they can hold off a comeback more convincingly than they did in that Copa del Rey decider, Atleti can complete the job.