Two clubs of considerable Uefa Champions League pedigree meet in the 2023/24 round of 16 as last season's finalists Inter Milan take on Atlético de Madrid, runners-up in 2014 and 2016, with both teams unbeaten in this season's competition. Catch the action live on SuperSport.
The sides are meeting for only the second time although their first leg at San Siro represents a second successive game against a club from their opponents' country for both.
Inter concluded their group campaign with a 0-0 draw at home to Real Sociedad on Matchday 6, ensuring they would finish second behind the Spanish side in Group D. Atlético, meanwhile, made it three successive Champions League victories with a 2-0 win against Lazio in Madrid to seal first place in Group E.
Inter are making a third successive round of 16 appearance having missed out for nine seasons in a row before 2021/22; Atlético are in the knockout rounds for the fifth time in six seasons, although they have lost two of their last four ties at this stage.
MATCH FACTS
The only previous meeting between Internazionale and Atlético de Madrid was in the 2010 Uefa Super Cup, won 2-0 by the Spaniards thanks to goals from Jose Antonio Reyes and Sergio Agüero.
Under Diego Simeone, Atlético de Madrid have won five of their six games in the knockout stages of European competition against Italian sides. However, the most recent of those ended in a 0-3 defeat away to Juventus in the Uefa Champions League last 16 in 2018-19 – a result which eliminated them from the tournament (2-3 on aggregate).
This will be Internazionale’s first Uefa Champions League knockout match against a Spanish side since the 2009-10 semifinal, when José Mourinho’s Inter eliminated Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate. Atlético last faced an Italian side in the knockouts in the 2018-19 round of 16 – after winning 2-0 in the first leg against Juventus, they lost 3-0 in the second leg and were eliminated.
Atlético de Madrid have only won five of their 18 away games against Italian sides in European competition (D4 L9), although they have won both matches in this run played at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium (1-0 in 2014 and 2-1 in 2021, both versus Milan).
Internazionale have only lost one of their last 13 games in the Uefa Champions League (W7 D5), with that lone defeat coming in last season’s final against Manchester City. The Italian side have kept a clean sheet in 62 per cent of the matches they’ve played in this run (8/13), and only conceded nine goals in total.
Atlético de Madrid have scored 17 goals in six games in the Uefa Champions League this season. Only in the 2013-14 campaign, when they reached the final and played 13 games, have they netted more in a single edition of the tournament (26).
Internazionale (29y 167d) and Atlético de Madrid (29y 205d) are the two teams remaining in this season’s Uefa Champions League with the oldest average age of their starting XI. Indeed, only Sevilla had an older average age of their starters in this season’s group stage (30y 66d).
Antoine Griezmann has scored 18 per cent of Atlético de Madrid’s goals in the Uefa Champions League (31/169) – for clubs who’ve netted 100+ goals in the competition, only Lionel Messi for Barcelona has netted a higher proportion of his team’s total (21 per cent - 120/561).
Lautaro Martínez has netted 12 goals for Internazionale in the Uefa Champions League, with only Adriano (14) and Julio Cruz (13) scoring more often for the club in the competition. The Argentine striker has found the net in each of his last two starts against Spanish sides, including one earlier this season against Real Sociedad.
Álvaro Morata has scored five goals in six games for Atlético de Madrid in the Uefa Champions League this season. The last Spanish player to score more in a single campaign for a Spanish club was Diego Costa in 2013-14 (8), who did so for an Atlético side who finished as runners-up in that edition.