Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid: Champions League – preview, teams, prediction

Who: Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid
What: Champions League, league phase
Where: Anfield, Liverpool, United Kingdom
When: Wednesday, September 9, at 8pm (19:00 GMT)
How to follow: Al Jazeera Sport will bring you all the build-up from 16:00 GMT ahead of our live text commentary stream

Liverpool and Atletico Madrid kick off their 2026-27 Champions League campaigns with a mouthwatering league-phase game at Anfield.

Andoni Iraola got his first win as Liverpool manager over the weekend and now turns his attention to his first Champions League game with the football club.

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid’s unbeaten start came to an end on Saturday when they slumped to a 3-0 away defeat at Athletic Bilbao.

Isak fires Liverpool to first win under Iraola

Alexander Isak struck twice in the opening 10 minutes as Liverpool delivered a first win for Iraola with a 2-0 victory at Ipswich on Friday.

Isak’s Premier League record 125-million-pound ($169m) move from Newcastle was matched this week by Manchester City’s signing of Enzo Fernandez, but 12 months on, the Swede is finally beginning to deliver on his price tag.

Ipswich never recovered from a disastrous start as Liverpool cruised to victory at Portman Road with their latest 100-million-pound ($135m) signing Bradley Barcola making his debut as a second-half substitute.

Victory maintains an unbeaten start for Iraola. A pair of 2-2 draws against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest did not lack in entertainment for the Basque coach’s opening two games in charge, but did little to ease doubts over Liverpool’s ability to challenge at the top end of the table this season.

“We needed it. Definitely needed this one. Also the way it has been, I think, with a clean sheet,” said Iraola.

Alexander Isak celebrates scoring Liverpool’s second goal against Ipswich [Paul Childs/Action Images via Reuters]

Flat Atletico trounced by Bilbao

Athletic Bilbao thumped Atletico Madrid 3-0 in La Liga on a miserable Saturday afternoon for Diego Simeone’s side.

Simeone’s Atletico fell to their first defeat of the season, putting up little fight in the second half after Athletic made the breakthrough with two quick strikes from Nico Williams and Robert Navarro, before Oihan Sancet added a third at Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium.

“[We had] two minutes of inattention and poor decision-making in situations we should have handled better,” said Simeone. “Bilbao capitalised on that lapse.”

Striker Julian Alvarez, who tried to leave the club to join Barcelona this summer, returned as a substitute after illness in an ineffective second-half appearance.

“We were good in the first half, but the game got away from us in those [couple of] minutes,” said Simeone.

“We lacked in the second half everything that we had in the first.”

Manager Diego Simeone throws the ball to Atletico Madrid’s South Korean midfielder Kang-in Lee during the defeat to Bilbao [Ander Gillenea/AFP]

Prediction

The Opta supercomputer pegs Liverpool as the favourites, with a win probability of 53 percent. Atletico were given a 23.5 percent chance of winning.

Head-to-head

The two clubs have faced each other on nine occasions; Liverpool won four of the games, Atletico won three, and two ended as draws.

Last five encounters:

• September 17, 2025: Liverpool 3-2 Atletico Madrid (Champions League)
• November 3, 2021: Liverpool 2-0 Atletico Madrid (Champions League)
• October 19, 2021: Atletico Madrid 2-3 Liverpool (Champions League)
• March 11, 2020: Liverpool 2-3 Atletico Madrid (Champions League)
• February 18, 2020: Atletico Madrid 1-0 Liverpool (Champions League)

What happened the last time Liverpool played Atletico?

Liverpool seemed to be sailing with early goals from Andy Robertson and a typically fine strike by Mohamed Salah in their game last September, but were pegged back by Marcos Llorente’s goals in first-half stoppage time and at the 81st minute.

However, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk soared to score with a header in the second minute of stoppage time to seal a 3-2 win for the Reds.

Virgil van Dijk celebrates scoring the late winner for Liverpool [Peter Powell/Reuters]

Liverpool’s team news

Hugo Ekitike, Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni have all been ruled out with injuries, while Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo were not included in Liverpool’s Champions League squad.

Joe Gomez faces a late fitness test as he is struggling with a muscle issue.

New signing Bradley Barcola may be set for his start out wide on the right, with Victor Munoz dropping to the bench.

Predicted starting XI:

Alisson (goalkeeper); Araujo, Jacquet, van Dijk, Kerkez; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch; Barcola, Wirtz, Gakpo; Isak

Atletico’s team news

Forward Alexander Sorloth is expected to miss out on the game due to a thigh injury, and Arnau Ortiz is suspended after receiving a red card while last in European action – for Slask Wroclaw back in August 2024.

Predicted starting XI:

Oblak (goalkeeper); Llorente, Pubill, Romero, Grimaldo; Koke, Hjulmand; Simeone, Baena, Lookman; David