Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona: Champions League preview, predictions and bet builder tips

The Champions League is approaching the business end, with the quarter-final second-legs taking place this week. It's make or break for Barcelona, as they face a two-goal deficit against Atletico Madrid after a surprise result at the Nou Camp. Ladbrokes previews the Atletico vs Barcelona second-leg, with the latest odds, tips and team news, and predicts who will advance to the semi-finals. Atleti are favourites to qualify at 2/7, but on the night Barcelona are favourites at odds of 5/6.

• Fixture: Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona

• Competition: Champions League

• Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2026

• Kick-off: 8pm BST

• Venue: Riyadh Air Metropolitano

Our prediction: Atletico Madrid 1-2 Barcelona (3-2 aggregate)

Atletico Madrid

Our predicted XI (4-4-2): Musso / Molina, Le Normand, Lenglet, Ruggeri / Simeone, Llorente, Koke, Lookman / Alvarez, Griezmann

Barcelona

Our predicted XI (4-2-3-1): J. Garcia / Kounde, Araujo, Martin, Cancelo / E. Garcia, Pedri / Yamal, Fermin, Rashford / Lewandowski

These two La Liga rivals have met twice previously in the Champions League quarter-finals, and history remarkably looks set to repeat itself, with Atletico Madrid on the brink of knocking Barcelona out of Europe for the third time in Diego Simeone's reign. After Barca were reduced to ten men, Atleti ruthlessly took advantage and take a commanding 2-0 lead back home to Madrid.

This is the sixth time the sides have played each other this season, with Barca leading the head-to-head 3-2. Simeone's men have already defeated La Blaugrana over two legs in the Copa del Rey, and will feel confident of doing so again.

A late Robert Lewandowski winner gave Barca a 2-1 win the last time they met in Madrid, and the initiative will entirely be on Hansi Flick's side. We think that Barcelona will win 2-1 again on the night, but lose 3-2 on aggregate as their decade-long wait for a European trophy goes on.

Last week was the first time all season that Barcelona have failed to score at home, and it was also Atletico's first clean sheet of this season's Champions League. Both teams have scored in nine of eleven Champions League games for each side, so despite last week's miss, we feel confident predicting that both teams will score again.

This quarter-final tie changed complexion in an instant when Pau Cubarsi was shown a straight red card for bringing down Giuliano Simeone outside the area, before Julian Alvarez stepped up to curl the resulting free-kick deliciously past Joan Garcia. After largely playing second fiddle to Erling Haaland at Manchester City, Alvarez is most certainly the main man at Atleti.

The Argentinian forward has particularly thrived in the Champions League this season, with nine goals and four assists from twelve games. Alvarez has had at least one shot on target in each of his last five games, and we're backing him to continue that streak here.

Koke remains a key figure for Atletico Madrid, with the experienced midfielder still doing the dirty work in the middle of the park under Diego Simeone. The Atleti skipper has picked up five bookings in La Liga this season, including one in the home fixture against Barcelona, and collected his first of this Champions League season in the first-leg last week - which we tipped beforehand.

With Atleti likely to deploy the dark arts as they look to protect their 2-0 advantage, we expect Koke to be in the thick of the action and be shown a yellow card again, especially as he's not at risk of suspension for the semi-finals.

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All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.