20:48
By the way, there is bad news for the Werkself. In the game between Bruges and Porto, which started at 6:45 p.m., the Portuguese defended themselves 4-0. This means that Leverkusen already has no chance of reaching the last sixteen of the Champions League. With an away win, the Bundesliga club could at least set the course for spending the winter in the Europa League.
20:35
Incidentally, both teams are facing each other for the tenth time in a competitive game tonight. The Werkself are just ahead of the direct comparison with three wins (four draws, two defeats). Most recently, the Rhinelanders won two competitive games in a row against the Colchoneros, who, however, have a strong home record against German teams. Atlético Madrid have not lost a single one of their last eleven international home games against Bundesliga clubs (eight wins, three draws).
20:29
At the weekend, the Werkself did not get better than a 2-2 draw against their neighbor Wolfsburg in their own stadium. Xabi Alonso is reacting to this tonight with three changes to his starting lineup: Callum Hudson-Odoi, Piero Hincapié and Nadiem Amiri are replacing Amine Adli, Jonathan Tah (both on the bench) and Kerem Demirbay (muscular problems).
20:24
Bayer Leverkusen is in crisis despite a change of coach. Although the Werkself won the first competitive game under Xabi Alonso 4-0 against Schalke 04, the subsequent games against Porto (0-3), Frankfurt (1-5) and Wolfsburg (2-2) showed that there was still a lot of work to do lies with the team that occupies a completely disappointing 15th place in the Bundesliga table. In the Champions League, the Rhinelanders beat today’s opponent Atlético 2-0 in a very strong performance on the second matchday. However, the other three group games were all lost with 0:6 goals.
20:18
In Sunday’s dress rehearsal, Atlético managed an important 2-1 away win at Real Betis, which they have to build on tonight. Diego Simeone rotates two positions compared to this game: Yannick Carrasco and Mario Hermoso are preferred to Saúl and Stefan Savić (both on the bench).
20:13
After a weak start to the season, Atlético Madrid has recently been doing much better. The Rojiblancos are unbeaten in five competitive games (W3 D2) and have taken 13 out of a possible 15 points from their last five games in La Liga. Atleti returned to third place in the table. In the Champions League, however, the Colchoneros not only remained without a win in their last three group games, but also without scoring their own goal.
20:06
Both opponents had imagined the previous performance in Group B, which is quite surprisingly led by Club Brugge, guaranteed to be different. While the Colchoneros are only third with four out of twelve possible points, the Werkself, who have lost three of their first four games, are in the Red Lantern. If the Rhinelanders lose in the Wanda Metropolitano, the end of the Bundesliga would be sealed.
20:00
Good evening and welcome from the Wanda Metropolitano. Atlético Madrid host Bayer Leverkusen today at 21:00 in the fifth round of Group B of the UEFA Champions League.