Atletico Madrid have enough quality to beat Real in the Champions League, says Guillem Balague

Atletico Madrid have enough quality to beat Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final second leg, according to Sky Sports’ Spanish expert Guillem Balague.

The teams go into Wednesday’s match off the back of a 0-0 draw in the first leg, but a number of injuries in the Real Madrid squad mean the encounter at the Bernabeu is not a foregone conclusion.

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Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ, Balague said: “In the first half of the first leg, Real Madrid had a lot of chances. In fact, they ended up having 18 shots on goal.

“But again, Atletico Madrid adjusted the team, pressured higher and managed to stop the offensive power of Real Madrid.

“Now, injuries mean that they have to test the bench, and you can say Ancelotti has not trusted some of the guys he’s going to put in the team. 

"Coentrao has hardly played, Chicarito has hardly played, maybe even Pepe in the midfield, and that is something he hasn’t used normally. Injuries have changed completely the analysis of this game in favour of Atletico Madrid.

“At 0-0, everyone was happy, but what has happened since in terms of injuries to Modric and Bale, suspensions to Marcelo, and also Benzema out means, in my eyes, Atletico Madrid are now favourites.”

The absence of Bale, Benzema and Modric would hurt any team but Balague believes Marcelo will be missed the most.

“Defensively, he is a liability, we all know that,” he said. “But he provides something completely different, a surprise. Atletico Madrid are going to be very compact, they are going to use five midfielders.

“Griezmann will act as a midfielder when they don’t have the ball, it will be a 4-5-1 formation, which is difficult to beat. When that happens, you need someone to provide something different, and Marcelo can play different positions, even sometimes as a number nine!

“That kind of surprise really helps. Benzema is the person that links between midfield and attack, Modric is certainly the best midfielder, and Bale is somebody that scores in big games. They’re all big misses, but I think Marcelo adds something different to this Real Madrid.”

Wednesday’s match will be the eighth time Atletico and Real have met this season, with Real failing to win on every occasion.

As mentioned by Balague, the last two decades of this fixture has been dominated by the brilliance of Real, but recently Atletico have managed to fight back into contention.

“Atletico Madrid know exactly how to play Real Madrid,” Balague said. “Little by little they have started to get better and Diego Simeone has made this Atletico Madrid very difficult to beat.

"That’s the first thing that Real Madrid haven’t been able to do, just open up the defence of Atletico Madrid.”