Atletico Madrid vs PSV Eindhoven Betting Tips and Predictions

The 1st Leg in the Netherlands ended in stalemate 3 weeks ago. Atleti, strong favourites to win the tie, looked marginally the more likely to find the breakthrough and PSV’s cause wasn’t helped by the fact that striker Gaston Pereiro saw red with over 20 minutes still to play. A 0-0 draw puts Atletico in a strong position although without an away goal to show for their efforts in Eindhoven they have little margin for error here.

Since the 1st Leg, Atletico have put in a number of impressive displays in La Liga. They’ve won all 4 matches since and that includes wins away to Real Madrid and Valencia as well as convincing 3-0 home wins against Deportivo La Coruna and Real Sociedad. They have struggled for goals a bit this season so scoring 3 times in each of their last 3 games will have pleased Diego Simeone immensely and they still look rock solid at the back although have little chance of winning the league with Barcelona 8 points clear.

PSV are locked in a tight battle with Ajax to land the Eredivisie and have only been beaten once in the league this term. They progressed ahead of Manchester United in their Champions League group however most of their good work was done at home. They took just one point from their away games in the group and that came via a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford. They’ve not won an away knock-out stage game in this competition since a 2-0 win at Monaco in 2005. Since the 1st Leg PSV have played 3 matches in the league beating ADO Den Haag and Groningen but dropping points at home to Heerenveen on Saturday.

This is unquestionably their toughest fixture of the season so far and odds of 2/7 for Atletico to win it inside the 90 minutes reflects their superiority. The Champions League is Atleti’s final chance to land silverware this season barring an unlikely Barcelona collapse in the league. They will be desperate to win this and given they are now quite experienced European campaigners they should be very capable of doing just that.

Atleti have the best defensive record in Europe’s big five leagues having let in just 12 times in 29 matches this season. They have won 28 matches in all competitions and a staggering 22 of them have been ‘to nil’. They have kept clean sheets in 9 of their last 10 Champions League home games, winning 7 of them and therefore backing Atletico Madrid to win to nil at 8/11 looks very good indeed here.