Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey will make his first start in the UEFA Champions League for Spanish side Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night they face German giants Bayer Leverkusen.
Coach Diego Simeone will approach the match with a sense of continuity, again as he will deploy the talented Ghanaian to the midfield.
With Atletico putting up an outstanding performance in the first-leg thanks to their 4-2 away win, www.footballbets.tips is tipping the Spanish side to triumph and advance to the quarter-finals.
Bayer Leverkusen need to score at least three times to have any chance of progressing to the next round; they’ve gone 31 Champions League games on the road without managing and Partey will be key for Atletico’s performance tonight.
The young Ghanaian midfielder has so far made 13 appearances across all competitions for Los Rojiblancos this season.
Partey has played for Atletico in the Champions League, and yet despite a total of eight outings in the competition he’s yet to make a start.
That will change at Estadio Vicente Calderon against the German club thanks to Gabi’s injury, allowing largely the same setup that began the win over Granada to play once again.
With Saul Niguez, Yannick Carrasco, and Koke also in midfield, Simeone will also place Angel Correa in the attack alongside Antoine Griezmann.
Finally, given Stefan Savic’s fractured nose, Jose Maria Gimenez is expected to take his place in the defence and partner Diego Godin.
So the starting eleven would be made up of: Oblak; Vrsaljko, Giménez, Godín, Lucas; Koke, Thomas Partey, Saul, Carrasco; Griezmann and Correa.
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