Manchester United will make the trip to Wanda Metropolitano

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Manchester United will make the trip to Wanda Metropolitano on Wednesday evening looking to claim an advantage in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid. The Red Devils finished top of Group F to advance to the knockout round of the competition, while Atletico claimed second spot in Group B behind Liverpool to ensure that they would be present at this stage.

Unusually inconsistent this season, a 3-0 victory over Osasuna in La Liga was at least the perfect warm-up for Spanish Champions Atlético Madrid ahead of their eighth UEFA Champions League (UCL) knockout appearance in the last nine seasons. Manchester United await, and Atlético are no strangers to facing English opposition having lost home and away to Liverpool in the group stages this season and seeing their UCL journey end in identical fashion against Chelsea at this stage last season.

Atlético’s ‘home’ leg last season was played in Bucharest, nullifying ‘home advantage’, but this season the Wanda Metropolitano will be packed to the rafters as under-pressure boss Diego Simeone and his side seek to extend their remarkable 14-match unbeaten run in UCL home knockout games (W9, D5) and set themselves up nicely to secure a tenth two-legged victory in 13 attempts against English opposition.

After a hard-fought 4-2 victory at a wet and wild Elland Road, United swap the wind and rain of Yorkshire for the sunshine of Madrid, although the Spanish sun doesn’t always shine on the ‘Red Devils’, who have only won one of their last seven UCL knockout games in Spain and can only boast a mere 21% win rate in away games in UEFA competition against Spanish clubs in general.

It was Spanish opposition in the form of Barcelona who last stopped United scoring in the UCL back in April 2019, and their next goal will be their 400th in UCL history (group stage to final). You would fully expect United to hit that historic landmark having scored in 18 of their last 19 competitive games and they may even be good value to go beyond 400 given their last 12 UCL games have averaged 3.67 goals per game – ten of which saw both teams score.

Date: 23/02/2022
Time: 23:00
Venue: Wanda Metropolitano (Madrid)
Pick for this match:
“2” – @ 3.05 ( BETWAY )