The La Liga leaders were given a real run for their money in the first leg, although they are the favourites to go through after the 1-1 draw at Teresa Rivero.

Rayo Vallecano will attempt to use their Copa del Rey campaign to get their season back on track and another quality performance against one of Spain’s top sides would definitely get them closer to their goal.

Atletico Madrid have done remarkably well to keep up with El Clasico rivals in recent years and midway through the league campaign they find themselves at the La Liga summit.

And even though Barcelona have a game in hand, this is a remarkable achievement when we take everything into account.

Once again, it is team’s defensive performances that have been the main reason behind excellent results, with 8 conceded goals in 19 league fixtures clearly a marvelous record.

With so many quality players at his disposal, Diego Simeone unsurprisingly decided to use the Copa del Rey campaign to give his back-up players a chance to shine, and this strategy has produced decent results so far.

The second string side held their own in the first leg against Rayo Vallecano, although they needed a help from first team regular Saul Niguez to avoid a defeat in Vallecas.

Atletico have been made 1.30 (3/10) favourites to win the return leg, but they will have to make do without Fernando Torres, who suffered an ankle injury in training on Monday.

Tiago Mendes continues to miss out, but Guilherme Siqueira is back, while Simeone is again set to field a second string side.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Moya – Gamez, Savic, Gimenez, Siqueira – Fernandez, Kranevitter – Correa, O. Torres, Carrasco – Martinez.

Rayo Vallecano have established themselves as one of league’s most entertaining sides under Paco Jemez, who is regarded fans’ favourite to take over from Vicente Del Bosque as the next Spain coach.

However, los Franjirrojos have been in all sorts of problems this season, although it is fair to say they were very unfortunate not to pick up more than 15 points from 19 games.

After missing out on a top table finish by virtue of inferior head to head record alone, Rayo now find themselves in the relegation zone, and seemingly unable to end the barren run of results.

Their winless run in all competition now stretches to eight games (D2 L6), meaning they have no choice but to try and record a morale-boosting result at Vicente Calderon.

That may be easier said than done though despite the fact that there will be quite a few star names missing for Atletico.

As far as the visitors are concerned, they have no fresh injury worries, although Razvan Rat, Antonio Amaya, Patrick Ebert, Tono and Cobeno continue to miss out.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Yoel – Tito, Llorente,Dorado, Martinez – Embarba, Jozabed, Baena, Hernandez – Guerra, Fedor.