Tottenham Hotspur face a difficult fightback against Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their Round of 16 tie in the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League.
Trailing 5-2 on aggregate after the first leg, Tottenham must win by a four-goal margin to advance but a three-goal winning margin would send the tie to extra time and potentially penalties.
Atletico Madrid can advance with a win, draw or defeat if lose by two goals or fewer.
Team News
Tottenham have no fresh injury concerns after their 1-1 draw at Liverpool in the Premier League.
Mickey van de Ven is back from his domestic suspension, whilst Cristian Romero (concussion) has been cleared to return alongside Destiny Udogie (hamstring) and Lucas Bergvall (ankle).
Conor Gallagher (illness) is a doubt for selection and faces a late fitness check.
Yves Bissouma (muscle), Joao Palhinha (concussion), Rodrigo Bentancur (hamstring), Ben Davies (ankle), Mohammed Kudus (quad), James Maddison, Wilson Odobert (both ACL) and Dejan Kulusevski (knee) are still ruled out.
Atletico Madrid will be without goalkeeper, Jan Oblak after he missed their La Liga win against Getafe due to a muscle injury.
Pablo Barrios (hamstring/thigh) and Rodrigo Mendoza (ankle) remain ruled out.
When is Kick-Off?
Tottenham host Atletico Madrid at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday 18 March at 8pm GMT, live on TNT Sports 3 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham lost their only previous Champions League meeting against Atletico Madrid by a 5-2 result in the first leg of this tie.
- Atletico Madrid are making their first Champions League trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
- Tottenham are yet to concede at home this season in the Champions League (W4).
- Atletico Madrid are yet to keep a clean sheet away from home in the Champions League this season (W1, D2, L2).
Prediction
With a three-goal deficit to overturn, this task does near-impossible for Tottenham but they’re yet to concede at home in Europe this season, so it is vital that they score ideally early and kick on to find more goals but stay defensively solid as concede once and the tie will be certainly finished.
They however can take heart from their resilient display at Liverpool because they dug in defensively yet were dangerous on the counter-attack, which at least stopped their losing run but their eye now is surely on Sunday’s crunch clash against Nottingham Forest in the fight for top-flight survival.
Atletico meanwhile have a poor away record in this season’s Champions League in terms of defence and results, but they do still manage to score which is something that could help them over the line on aggregate as long as they bring the same intensity of the first leg and avoid blowing their three-goal advantage.
As much as Tottenham should benefit from those returning, I just think that Atletico will be too strong as the hosts’ priority surely is on preparing for that Forest game.
Prediction: Tottenham 1-2 Atletico Madrid
Result: Tottenham 3-2 Atletico Madrid (Atletico Madrid win 7-5 on aggregate)
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