Atlético still aiming to break group duck

Club Atlético de Madrid coach Quique Sánchez Flores is targeting "the result we need" against FC Porto to claim UEFA Europa League football, with the Spanish capital side requiring an elusive first Group D win to end APOEL FC's hopes of pipping them to third place in the section. Jesualdo Ferreira's men have no such worries as they are guaranteed second spot and a UEFA Champions League knockout round berth, but the experienced coach has promised to name his strongest lineup as the Dragons aim to maintain momentum heading into the last 16.

Quique Sánchez Flores, Atlético coach
Lucho and Lisandro were very important for Porto but this is a team that plays with intelligence and craft. Porto are always very tricky and competitive. Maybe they had problems at the start of the season but this team has always responded when they had to be at their best. We will try to do the things we did well against other teams. We want to get the result we need and not be looking to Stamford Bridge for favours.

Jesualdo Ferreira, Porto coach
Playing a Champions League match carries a responsibility and there is a lot of money involved. Atlético have had some good results and are battling to be in the Europa League. It will be a match without nerves but with quality. Quique Sánchez Flores knows that Porto have always played with their best players. Nine months ago, Porto played here with a team that had many difficulties. There have been many changes since then. We won and have scored many goals in recent games, but there have been other games where we didn't score so many goals but played well, like at Stamford Bridge. I must build a different team for each match. We are close to the team we want. We want to be a more balanced team. If things go wrong, I'll be here to explain my options. Quique Flores is the foreign coach who best knows Hulk and Porto's quality. We don't know Atlético so well. His comments are like mine about Diego Forlán and Sergio Agüero. What he says shows how much he knows our team.

Weekend results
05/12/09 Xerez CD 0-2 Atlético
(Forlán 29, Agüero 65)

• Atlético survived Álvaro Domínguez's 84th-minute dismissal to record their first successive Liga victories of the season.

• Los Rojiblancos have kept successive clean sheets after failing to record a shutout in their first eleven league fixtures of the campaign.

• The club are now on 13 points after as many games, worse than at the same stage in 1999/2000, when they had 14 points from 13 outings and went on to be relegated.

04/12/09 Vitória SC 1-4 Porto
(Andrézinho 45+1; Varela 12, Falcao 34, Bruno Alves 66, Rodríguez 88)

• Varela's opener was his fourth league goal of the season, while Falcao found the net for the eighth time in 12 top-flight appearances this term.

Team news
Atlético
Out: Tomáš Ujfaluši (knee), Raúl García (ankle)
Doubtful: none
Suspended: none
Misses next match if booked: Álvaro Domínguez

• Paulo Assunção is available again after a one-game ban on Matchday 5.

Porto
Out: Rolando (flu)
Doubtful: none
Suspended: none
Misses next match if booked: none

• Mariano González is available again having completed a two-match ban following his red card on Matchday 3.

Background
• Prior to Porto's 2-0 victory over Atlético on Matchday 2, the teams also met in last season's first knockout round, when Porto again held the upper hand. Lisandro's double at the Vicente Calderón made the difference for the visitors in a 2-2 draw, with Maxi Rodríguez and Diego Forlán on target for the hosts. A scoreless second leg ensured that Porto marched on.

• The clubs had previously met only once in a competitive fixture, the 1963/64 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round. That went Atlético's way thanks to a 2-1 home success, the game in Portugal again ending scoreless.

Did you know?
Porto's defeat at Chelsea on Matchday 1 is their only reverse in six UEFA Champions League away games.

For more information on the match in the official press kit, click here.