As Diego Simeone’s side step into the Champions League quarter-final stages against RB Leipzig, a sensational stat follows closely behind.

A win home and away against reigning European champions Liverpool saw the Spanish side get through to this stage of the competition, while Leipzig defeated Tottenham home and away.

But with Atletico’s progression into this stage, with the games now being just one legged encounters all eyes go to how is anyone going to breach Simeone’s defensive structure to beat them.

When you read the stat that no team has knocked a Diego Simeone team out of the Champions League without having Cristiano Ronaldo, you start to look at the rest of Europe as just being in their way en route to a first ever Champions League crown.

Leipzig will be without their top scorer Timo Werner after he signed for Chelsea, while Atleti are at full strength. They will likely continue to use Marcos Llorente in a more attacking role, which has seem him flourish post-lockdown strangely enough. Joao Felix has a point to prove after a mediocre start to his Atleti career, while Morata, Costa and Correa all want to prove they should be first choice going forward too.

With Simeone’s style of play always being to not lose rather than to win games, opposition teams will have to be at their absolute best to ensure they don’t get to keep a clean sheet. Leipzig won’t have the attacking end product to really test Atletico in that department in my opinion so it’ll be the semi-final when they take on PSG that they’ll really be tested.

Against Atalanta Neymar showed the world how much he wants the Champions League title while Kylian Mbappe, even though he wasn’t fully fit, made the big difference from the substitutes bench. The amount of quality in their side will pose a threat to Atletico, but Simeone will be confident that his system will be enough to see them through.

With one-legged games, it’s advantage Atletico.