How Atletico Madrid could line up against Chelsea

Atletico Madrid will be looking to secure an advantage when they face Chelsea in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League contest on Tuesday night.

Coronavirus restrictions over travel mean that this fixture cannot take place in Spain, and as a result, Atletico's home leg against Thomas Tuchel's side will take place in Romania.

Diego Simeone's side are still top of La Liga, having enjoyed an excellent campaign to date, but they will enter this match off the back of a shock 2-0 home loss to Levante on Saturday.

Here, Sports Mole looks at how Atletico could line up against the Blues.

Out: Yannick Carrasco (muscle), Hector Herrera (coronavirus), Sime Vrsaljko (unspecified), Jose Gimenez (muscle), Kieran Trippier (suspended)

Atletico will again be without the services of Hector Herrera and Kieran Trippier through coronavirus and suspension respectively, while three first-team players are unavailable through injury.

Neither Yannick Carrasco nor Sime Vrsaljko have been able to recover from their problems to be included in the squad, while Jose Gimenez suffered a muscular problem against Levante and has also been ruled out.

Gimenez's place at the back should be taken by Stefan Savic, who was suspended in La Liga on Saturday, with Simeone widely expected to stick with a back three for Tuesday's European contest.

Luis Suarez and Joao Felix should start as the front two, while Renan Lodi and Marcos Llorente are set to continue in the wing-back positions due to the absences of Carrasco and Vrsaljko.

Geoffrey Kondogbia could get the nod over Thomas Lemar in midfield, with Koke and Saul Niguez also likely to feature in the starting XI.

Moussa Dembele made his debut on Saturday, having recovered from coronavirus, and the 24-year-old, who is on loan from Lyon, has been named in the travelling squad.

> Click here to see how Chelsea could line up for the contest