Panathinaikos have it all to do in Madrid

Panathinaikos FC travel to play-off rivals Club Atlético de Madrid needing to win in Spain for the first time to book a place in this season's UEFA Champions League. Atlético's 3-2 first-leg triumph in Athens has put Abel Resino's side in pole position to claim a group-stage berth in this return meeting in the Spanish capital.

• Atlético claimed victory at Panathinaikos thanks to strikes from Maxi Rodríguez (36), Diego Forlán (63) and Sergio Agüero (70). Dimitris Salpingidis (47) brought the hosts level briefly at 1-1 but the Greek club would have faced an even greater task had Sebastian Leto not reduced the deficit to a single goal with his 74th-minute strike.

Previous meetings

• Atlético would settle for a repeat of their one previous encounter with Panathinaikos – a 2-1 victory in the UEFA Cup group stage in the 2007/08 season.

• Both clubs were already assured progress to the Round of 32 when they met at the Vicente Calderón on 20 December 2007 and Atlético fought back to win after conceding a 16th-minute opener to Salpingidis. Luís García equalised ten minutes after half-time and, despite Raúl García's 81st-minute dismissal, Simão snatched victory for the hosts with an injury-time free-kick.

• The full lineups for that fixture were:
Atlético: Christian Abbiati, Luis Perea, Zé Castro (Reyes 61), Fabiano Eller, Antonio López, Luís García, Raúl García, Cléber Santana (Simão 46), Maxi Rodríguez, Diego Forlán, Sergio Agüero (Pablo Ibañez 90).
Panathinaikos: Arkadiusz Malarz, Loukas Vintra, Nasief Morris, José Sarriegi, Panagiotis Fyssas, Simão (Elini Dimoutsos 85), Alexandros Tziolis, Marcelo Mattos, Sebastián Romero (Andreas Ivanschitz 68), Dimitris Salpingidis (Vangelis Mantzios 79), Dimitrios Papadopoulos.

• Panathinaikos's away record against Spanish clubs does not augur well for their chances – they have recorded nine defeats and one draw in ten previous visits.

• Atlético, by contrast, have a 100 per cent home record against Greek clubs with five wins from five matches.

Match background

• Panathinaikos have to make history on two fronts to book their berth in the group stage: besides a maiden win on Spanish soil, they must also mount a first successful comeback from an opening home reverse in Europe. On the five previous occasions they entered a return fixture trailing after defeat in Athens, they went on to lose the tie.

• Henk ten Cate's side are seeking their ninth appearance in the UEFA Champions League group stage. They have successfully negotiated the qualifying phase six times before, only being eliminated once by Rosenborg BK in 1996/97.

• The Greek outfit produced an impressive fightback in the third qualifying round, beating AC Sparta Praha 3-0 in the second leg to recover from a 3-1 first-leg defeat in the Czech Republic.

• Panathinaikos were eliminated by Spanish opposition from last season's UEFA Champions League. They went down 3-2 on aggregate to Villarreal CF in the first knockout round, following a 2-1 second-leg home defeat.

• Atlético are aiming to play in the group stage for the third time. Their first appearance in the qualifying phase came last season when they beat FC Schalke 04 in the third qualifying round.

• Both clubs were runners-up in European Champion Clubs' Cup finals in the 1970s: Panathinaikos in 1970/71 and Atlético in 1973/74.

Team ties

• Panathinaikos midfielder Gilberto Silva and Atlético forward José Antonio Reyes were Arsenal FC team-mates from 2004 to 2007.

• Greens striker Djibril Cissé and Atlético forward Florent Sinama-Pongolle played together at Liverpool FC between 2004 and 2006.

• Panathinaikos coach Ten Cate knows Spanish football well having served as Frank Rijkaard's assistant coach at FC Barcelona, winning successive Liga titles in 2005 and 2006.