Aguero: Atletico ready to sink Porto

ATLETICO MADRID will attempt to transfer their recent impressive domestic form onto the European stage tonight when they make the short hop across to Portugal to take on Porto in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Few would have given Atletico much hope of turning things around after they were outclassed by Porto in the first meeting and fortunate to escape with a 2-2 draw, but since then the Rojiblancos have started to build up a head of steam following impressive league performances against top two Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Striker Sergio Aguero said: “We have a lot of belief that we are going to get through. As soon as the derby finished, I started to think about Porto and looking for a place in the quarter-finals.

“We are going to give it everything, absolutely everything, to get through the tie while knowing that we will be facing a very difficult opponent who have home advantage.

“We have to take some good things out of both the games against Barca and Madrid, because we played differently, but very well.

“It’s true that we’ve improved immensely and we’ve recovered our confidence, little by little. We know that we are one of the best teams in Europe because we are in the last 16 and we have a lot of quality.

“The whole team are looking forward to (tonight’s) match with Porto and we are convinced that we are going to win and go through.”

Porto old boy Giorgios Seitaridis, Luis Garcia, Ever Banega and Alvaro Dominguez all miss out while Raul Garcia returns after sitting out the derby through suspension.

Porto pair Cristian Rodriguez and Cristian Sapunaru return to the squad and could feature but coach Jesualdo Ferreira will be without captain Pedro Emanuel and defenders Jorge Fucile and Nelson Benitez, who are all injured, while he has omitted Ivo Pinto and Rabiola.