Will Atletico Madrid be eliminated from the UEFA Champions League?
Atletico Madrid faced off against Juventus last night in a closely fought 1-0 victory for the Italian side. The game was somewhat of a formality for Juventus as the Italian club had already qualified for the knockout stages before the match.
Atletico Madrid, however, were in a more precarious position as their qualification was yet to be secured and that is still the case. Going into the final round of the group stages in a couple of weeks, Atletico Madrid faces the possibility of being eliminated from the competition.
Will this happen though? It is, of course, possible but dependent on several things happening for it to occur. Firstly, Atletico Madrid will have to lose or draw the final group stage fixture against Lokomotiv Moscow.
Immediately Atletico Madrid fans can probably draw a sigh of relief. Whilst it would be wrong to rule out the Russian side, Atletico go into that fixture as clear favourites and should not have much trouble defeating them.
However, let's entertain the idea that they do fail to win against Lokomotiv Moscow, that still is not enough for Atletico to be eliminated at the group stages. Should this occur, Atletico's fate would also be dependent on Juventus's fixture against Bayer Leverkusen.
Given Leverkusen's inferior goal difference to Atletico, the only way they could realistically qualify for the knockout stages is by beating Juventus. The only other alternative would be drawing with Juventus and Lokomotiv Moscow heavily defeating Atletico to bring their goal difference below Leverkusen's.
With all of this considered, it appears as though Atletico Madrid will most likely qualify for the Knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League as there are too many unlikely events that need to occur for them to be eliminated.
Nevertheless, it is still a mathematical possibilty, therefore, Atletico Madrid will have to be focussed in their final group stage fixture to make sure they don't allow this to happen. After all, stranger things have happened in football, just ask Leicester City.