Top of the Premier League, European and world champions, breaking records left, right and centre, it’s fair to say Liverpool are a daunting prospect at present.
Jürgen Klopp’s side are fearsome opposition and the team that pretty much everyone wants to avoid if they can help it.
Unfortunately for Atlético Madrid they couldn’t, with the Champions League draw pitting them against the reigning champions in the last 16.
It’s a game Diego Simeone won’t have been looking forward to given his side’s struggles this season, and now he has another problem, he may have to face the Reds without a recognised striker.
According to Marca, a series of injuries to Atlético’s forward line, and the failure to sign Edinson Cavani in January, has left them looking desperately short for the meeting with Liverpool.
While none of Álvaro Morata, Diego Costa or João Félix have been definitively ruled out, none of them are ‘100 per cent assured’ of playing either.
Morata is currently out with a hamstring injury, Costa has been out for two months and Félix is yet to recover from his own problems.
Marca say the Portuguese youngster is the one who has ‘more options’ although the policy at the club has been not to rush him back and that could see him miss the Liverpool game.
This is a ‘brutal blow’ for Atlético and Simeone if it does happen, with the Champions League having been ‘the most important tournament’ since the Argentine took charge of the club.
It leaves him needing to ‘invent a solution’ to the problem, something he failed to do in the recent derby defeat to Real Madrid.
