By Ian KingSpurs drama contrasts heavily with a quiet week at the office for Atlético MadridA chaotic opening 15 minutes in the first leg of this tie overshadowed anything that could have happened afterwards. The astonishing decision to drop Gugliemo Vicario and replace him with Antonín Kinsky, who’d never played in the Champions League before and hasn’t made a Premier League appearance for Spurs all season, resulted in the goalkeeper being yanked off after 17 minutes with his team already three goals down. The final score was 5-2, and it was strongly suggested that the Spurs head coach Igor Tudor might be in charge for Sunday’s trip to Anfield and then replaced. And then, lo and behold, by stripping their formation to a basic 4-4-2 and hitting the channels, Spurs managed a reasonable 1-1 draw at Liverpool on Sunday, so Tudor remains in his position and probably will do until the end of the season, now. There was no such drama for Atlético Madrid, who followed up this win by beating Getafe 1-0 at the weekend to further shore up their place in the Champions League for next season. They’re now 13 points ahead of fifth-placed Real Betis in LaLiga.A 5-2 reversal in the first leg was enough for a sliver of Spurs hopeThe first leg of this tie was only the second time that these clubs have met competitively, with the previous occasion having been the 1963 European Cup Winners Cup final in Rotterdam, which Spurs won 5-3. But after the dust had settled on that disastrous opening quarter in Madrid last week – which wasn’t helped when Spurs went 4-0 down, five minutes after Vicario came on – the visitors didn’t play that badly. The final score of 5-2 has left them with a sliver of hope that it could be overturned in the second leg, and their half-decent performance at Anfield on Sunday means that the atmosphere at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the return match might not be quite as toxic as might have been feared, although this could change very quickly again, should they start the way they did last Tuesday.Antoine Griezmann has got the chops to put this tie beyond SpursHe may be turning 35 at the weekend, but Antoine Griezmann demonstrated in the first leg that age hasn’t yet diminished his talents. He scored one and added an assist as well, and his form has picked up over the last few weeks following a patchy January. Spurs cannot afford to concede, if they’re to have any realistic chance of overcoming their three-goal deficit from the first leg, and Griezmann has it in the tank to be able to either score or create a killer blow in this match.Griezmann’s heat map from the first legXavi Simons was clearly signed by Spurs with one eye on this competition, but in recent weeks he’s been largely limited to the bench. Simons has the sort of creative spark which could unlock the Atleti defence, and if he can find a way through, they could have a chance of getting back into the tie. Atleti will be missing their highly experienced goalkeeper for this second legMicky Van de Ven returns from suspension, but both Cristian Romero and João Palhinha face late tests before a decision can be made over whether they return following the clash of heads in Madrid which left Spurs with nine players on the pitch by the end of the match. Richarlison is suspended, which is a big loss for them. On top of that, Conor Gallagher and Yves Bissouma (illness and injury respectively) both missed Sunday’s trip to Anfield and also need late tests. Otherwise, the injury list remains as it has for a while, with Wilson Odobert, Destiny Udogie, Lucas Bergvall, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ben Davies, James Maddison, Mohammed Kudus and Dejan Kulusevski all still out. The big change for Atlético Madrid comes in goal, where Jann Oblak is injured, and will be replaced by Juan Musso, who’s only made two appearances in LaLiga for them this season, though he did keep a clean sheet in each of them. Pablo Barrios returned as a substitute in the first leg, but was missing from their team at Getafe at the weekend. He needs to be assessed ahead of kick-off. Rodrigo Mendoza is their only other absentee. PredictionWith rumours still circulating that Harry Redknapp could yet return to try and steer Spurs to Premier League safety this season, it remains the case that The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium isn’t a very happy place at the moment. BUT. The performance for much of the first leg wasn’t completely atrocious, while their performance at Anfield yielded a much-needed point – in a strange twist of fate, all of the Premier League’s seven bottom clubs drew at the weekend – and a reason to put the fatalism to one side for a moment. And for all their woes in the Premier League, January yielded two decent wins against Bundesliga opposition – Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt – in this competition. Spurs will have to put in a season-best performance to have any realistic chance of overturning this three-goal deficit, and Antoine Griezmann and Julian Alvarez proved in the first leg that they can punish any further lapses in concentration from a defence which has had many such lapses, this season. And there are many around Spurs who will consider their weekend relegation six-pointer against Nottingham Forest to be of far greater importance than this match. Just because it can be done doesn’t necessarily mean that it will. The size of the deficit feels too great to overcome, especially with Spurs’ propensity to just give free goals to opponents. The last game and a half have demonstrated that the current Spurs team do still retain some degree of professional pride about themselves, and that should be enough to ensure that they pick up a result. I’ll say 2-1 to Spurs and a 6-4 aggregate defeat, but for the longer-term importance of this game being the small matter of whether they can gather a little more momentum ahead of that all-important Forest match. (Cover image from IMAGO)You can follow every game from the Champions League with FotMob this season – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.