Atletico Madrid have had a very positive summer window, bringing in the likes of Romero, Kang-In Lee, Hjulmand and Grimaldo to improve their squad and possibly set up a push for the title this year.

Only Real Madrid and Barcelona picked up more points at home than Atletico Madrid in LaLiga last season, with Diego Simeone’s side winning 15 of their 19 matches. They scored 39 goals across these games (2.05 per game) and should be able to score at least twice against a newly promoted Malaga side.

Malaga conceded 2+ goals in all four of their friendly matches ahead of the new campaign, including conceding three goals to a Leicester side competing in League One this season. They are likely to struggle with the quality of Atletico Madrid in this opening game of the campaign.

This should be a really entertaining tie over the two legs between two of the most positive sides in Europe. 

We’ve already seen how both can get involved in high scoring matches, with Bodo Glimt seeing BTTS in both legs in the last round of qualifying against Union Saint Gilloise and Nijmegen coming away 2-1 winners over Olympiakos in the second leg of their qualifying tie in the last round. 

Both sides have seen BTTS in each of their last three matches ahead of this clash, with all of these games seeing 3+ goals as well. I see these teams as being relatively well matched, which should see chances created and converted at both ends.