Atletico Madrid will start their Champions League journey away from home, facing Premier League champions Liverpool at Anfield. However, the team will be without their top forward Julian Alvarez.
Alvarez suffered a right knee strain in a recent match against Villarreal, which forced him to leave the game at halftime. Medical tests have confirmed that he will be sidelined for several weeks, missing the game on Tuesday.
While Liverpool manager Arne Slot will have newly signed striker Alexander Isak making his competitive debut, Simeone needs to adjust without two key attackers. In addition to Alvarez, Thiago Almada is also out due to a muscle injury sustained while on international duty with Argentina.
Atletico has more injury concerns, with Johnny Cardoso, Alex Baena, and Jose Maria Gimenez also unavailable, leaving Simeone short-handed for this challenging matchup. New signing Giacomo Raspadori is expected to step in to start alongside Antoine Griezmann.
Julian Alvarez during a game against Villareal. (Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)
Confirmed lineups
Given the injury situation, Simeone will field the following lineup against Liverpool: Jan Oblak; Marcos Llorente, Clement Lenglet, Javi Galan, Robin Le Normand; Conor Gallagher, Pablo Barrios, Giuliano Simeone, Nico Gonzalez; Antoine Griezmann, Giacomo Raspadori.
Liverpool’s only missing player is midfielder Curtis Jones. Despite this, with Isak alongside Salah and Gakpo in attack, Liverpool will still pose a strong challenge to Simeone’s squad.
Liverpool’s lineup for tonight’s game is: Alisson; Andrew Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Jeremie Frimpong; Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch; Florian Wirtz, Cody Gakpo, Alexander Isak, Mohamed Salah.