Chelsea return to Champions League action on Tuesday, as they take on La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid at National Arena in Bucharest, in what is the away leg for the Blues.
Thomas Tuchel’s side will be without defender Thiago Silva, who remains absent due to injury, but Christian Pulisic and Kai Havertz will be available for the trip to Romania.
Their opponents Atletico are missing a number of key players ahead of what is their home leg, with Jose Gimenez, Yannick Carrasco and Sime Vrsaljko all injured, Kieran Trippier is suspended and Hector Herrera is likely to miss this game due to testing positive for Covid-19.
So, what lineup will Tuchel go with? And, what will the final score be on Tuesday evening?
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We used FIFA 21 to have a bit of fun and get a unique prediction ahead of Chelsea’s midweek Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid.
Atletico Madrid vs Chelsea score predicted using FIFA 21
To set up this simulation, we used kick-off mode within FIFA 21 but didn’t select a team to control. We then selected the teams and watched the match play out by itself, to give us a unique prediction.
The AI difficulty was set to legendary, with the line-up updated with the latest transfers, injuries and suspensions, to make the simulation as realistic as possible.
We predict that Atletico Madrid could set up in a 3-4-1-2 formation, with the line-up as follows; Oblak; Hermoso, Felipe, Savic; Llorente, Koke, Saul, Lodi; Correa; Suarez, Felix.
We predict that Chelsea could set up in a 3-4-2-1 formation, with their lineup as follows; Mendy; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Christensen; James, Jorginho, Kovacic, Alonso; Mount, Werner; Giroud.
This FIFA 21 simulation was a very tight game, with few chances for both teams, although the Blues had significantly more periods of possession.
The best chance of the first-half fell to Timo Werner, who found some space on the right and unleashed a shot from a tight angle, but Jan Oblak was able to save easily.
In the second-half, Atletico were slightly more adventurous going forwards and created a decent chance just before the hour-mark.
Saul Niguez threaded a brilliant pass to Joao Felix, who managed to outpace Cesar Azplicueta and was bearing down on the Chelsea goal, but a poor touch led to Edouard Mendy being able to come out and smother the ball before Felix could attempt a shot.
With 17 minutes of the game remaining, Chelsea created what was the only real clear-cut chance in the entire game, with Reece James squaring for Mason Mount.
The English midfielder had found a pocket of space in the area and fired a powerful effort towards the near-post, but Oblak produced a sensational save to tip the effort up and over the bar.
Predicted FIFA 21 score: Atletico Madrid 0-0 Chelsea
Here are the full-time match stats.
This FIFA 21 simulation predicts that this match could be incredibly tight with only a handful of chances for both teams combined.
As always, this FIFA 21 sim is a bit of fun ahead of the game, so let’s see what happens at National Stadium on Tuesday night. What do you think the score will be against Atletico?
FIFA 21 is out now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
Additionally, fans who jump into FIFA 21 can also benefit from Dual Entitlement, enabling them to upgrade their copy of the game from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5, or Xbox One to Xbox Series X/S at no extra cost.
All progress made or content acquired within FIFA 21 Ultimate Team (including players, items, coins, FIFA Points, match record, and leaderboard placement), as well as all progression in VOLTA FOOTBALL will transfer over to PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S.