Atletico Madrid vs FC Astana
Atletico Madrid will go in as heavy favourites in tonight’s Champions League encounter with FC Astana, despite last round’s home defeat to Benfica. Atletico have won 21 of their last 25 home games in Europe against teams like Barcelona, Juventus, Milan and Porto but boss Diego Simeone will make sure his players aren’t underestimating their opponents by fielding his strongest eleven and reminding them that Astana grabbed a point off Galatasaray in the last round. Spain striker Fernando Torres is in line to start after new signing Luciano Vietto has been ruled out with an injury. Torres is on 99 goals for Atletico and will probably not get a better chance to score his 100th goal in the red and white shirt.
FC Astana is Kazakhstan’s first ever team in the Champions League and are probably happy just to have claimed a point already after two rounds. In the domestic league they find themselves second in the table, five points behind Kairat with one game in hand. The two teams face off in a very important game on the weekend and Astana coach Stanimir Stoilov therefore has decided to rest no less than six players for tonight’s Champions League game. The team basically travels to Madrid without its backbone and with Aničić, Shomko, Cañas, Maksimović, Dzholchiyev and Nuserbayev missing less experienced players will have to try to fill their boots. As if that wasn’t enough, they are also without top scoring striker Patrick Twumasi who is suspended. To think FC Astana will get anything from tonight’s game with that kind of news is more or less out of the question. It’s rather a question of how bad the score line will be for the guests.
Date & Time: 21 Oct 2015 – 20.45 CEST
Competition: Champions League
Match: Atletico Madrid – FC Astana
Pick: Atletico Madrid Asian Hcp -2.5
Odds: 2.05 @ bet365
Highest Odds: 2.06 @ BetVictor
Stake: 15 EUR
Rating: 1/5
Result: 4-0, bet won!
