Premier League leaders Manchester City travels to the Spanish capital while and Liverpool hosts Portuguese underdog Benfica in the Champions League quarterfinal second-leg matches on Wednesday.
The English sides go into their respective matches after playing out a stunning 2-2 stalemate over the weekend, that saw City reclaim the top spot once more.
City, who holds a slim 1-0 advantage over Atletico, faces the prospects of a trickier second leg as Diego Simeone’s confirmed Tuesday his side would not deviate from its usual style despite heavy criticism.
After losing last week's first leg with an overly defensive gameplan that yielded no attempts on goal, Atletico received plenty of criticism, including from former coach Arrigo Sacchi, who called it "prehistoric football, from the '60s."
"Loose lips sink ships," Simeone told a news conference when asked about Sacchi's comments.
"I've been coaching since 2005-06 and I prefer to always respect my colleagues. But that is always former players or coaches that decide to run their mouths to get people's attention. I just ignore them."
Simeone said his team, which reached the Champions League finals in 2014 and 2016, has an identity and will stick with it, despite having to win Wednesday's game to qualify for the semifinals.
"We're up against a team that plays very well. A very good positional game, but we're hopeful. It's clear that hope alone isn't enough, but we're going to try to take the game where we can hurt them," the Argentine added.
"Words don't say much, the important thing is what happens after the game starts."
Atletico captain Koke echoed his coach's comments and insisted that the squad reveled in their tough, rugged playing style.
"We have been playing like this for a decade and we enjoy it," the midfielder said.
"We have a plan and we will always be within this plan. We know how City plays, you can't give them space. Let people say what they want. We play the way we play, we have our plan and we are going to continue playing the way we play despite what the pundits suggest."
However, Atletico will need its attack to click after now going two games without scoring. Simeone's side had only one against relegation-threatened Mallorca in a 1-0 Spanish league loss on Saturday.
Simeone rested several regular starters against Mallorca, including forward Joao Felix who is primed for a return to action against City, which has yet to win the Champions League despite more than $1 billion spent on players since its Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008.
With a two-goal lead, Liverpool could be starting to think about its next cup assignment – an FA Cup semifinal game against Manchester City on Saturday.
The prospect of a Champions League final meeting with City remains alive if 2019 winner Liverpool can complete the job against Benfica and then overcome Bayern Munich or Villarreal in the semifinals.
While Liverpool is a six-time European champion, Benfica hasn't even made it to the European Cup semifinals since 1990.
Its glory days were in the 1960s with a pair of European titles. To advance this time could require goals from Darwin Nunez, who has six from four matches – including in the first leg against Liverpool.
He netted a hat trick in Benfica's 3-1 home win against Belenenses in the Portuguese league on Saturday.
