Two clubs of considerable UEFA Champions League pedigree will lock horns on Tuesday 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.
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, while Atlético 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.
Head-to-Head:
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 round of 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.
Internazionale have only lost one of their last 13 games in the Champions League, 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.