Atletico Madrid’s coach Diego Simeone has confirmed that Fernando Torres will be starting in the Champions League match against Barcelona.
Fernando Torres played in the game against Real Betis in the weekend and even scored a goal in the match. He also assisted Antoine Griezmann in one of the goals before he was substituted.
Simeone has revealed that the reason he was substituted was because he wanted to prepare him for the game against Barcelona. Fernando Torres is currently in a rich vein of form having scored four goals in the last seven games for Atletico. He deservedly needs to be in the team to face Barcelona in the Champions League.
The manager has also declared that defender Diego Godin will also be fit for the match after having been out of the team. Savic and Carrasco are all expected to be in the squad to face Barcelona.
The atletci players enjoyed a day off to ahead of the big match to try and relax their nerves, heading off to the local golf course. It was just a bit of fun, but thousands of fans turned up to watch, and I'm sure that if StanJames had offers betting odds on who would win, it would have been a very popular market!
Atletico Madrid will have to be wary of Barcelona, who just came out of a defeat inflicted by their bitter rivals, Real Madrid in the Classico. Diego Simeone might be tempted to try and use the same tactics that worked well for Real to stop Barcelona from playing their game.
Barcelona will be without Alex Vidal, Mathieu and Adriano, who are all expected to be out because of injuries.
The Barcelona manager, Luis Enrique has said that they will not be affected by the defeat against Real Madrid.
Instead, they will use it as a motivation for the remaining games of the season. He is aware that it will not be easy against Atletico Madrid and that they will need to be wary of their counter-attacks.
Diego Simeone is not expecting an easy match either, and although he knows that Barcelona may be technically superior, he will not want his team to give up without a fight.