Champions League: Barcelona – Atletico Madrid 08/04/2026

Last Saturday they played again in Madrid, the column sided with the motivated team and was rewarded with Barcelona’s away win. This however will be a different game. Great clash, I expect problems for the favorite. Fifth meeting since December with Barca winning the league matches and Atletico taking qualification in the cup (with 4-0 in the first match in Madrid and reaction from the Catalans who reached 3-0 in the second match…).

This year Simeone is building a new team that certainly does not have the defensive performances of previous years and this will be a problem since offensively the blaugrana are on fire. This was evident in the recent match where only Barca had real motivation.

Even in Saturday’s one sided interest match we did not see a calm game, it had 7 yellow cards and one red. This pairing always has intensity, the visitors are tough and cynical and the first match will be very crucial for the final outcome.

The referee is Romanian Kovacs, one of the strictest referees in Europe. The line is reachable for the match context.