La Liga high-flyers Atletico Madrid will be aiming to claim another major scalp on the road to the Champions League title when they host Chelsea in the first leg of their semi-final tie.

Just 72 hours after the costly Premier League defeat to Sunderland, the Blues face one of Europe’s in-form sides, hoping to record a good result ahead of the return leg at Stamford Bridge.

Atletico Madrid continue to impress as they are now the number one candidates for the league trophy, while they also have a good chance to make it to the Champions League final.

Los Colchoneros probably couldn’t even dream about such a success before the season started, but having come this far, they are determined not to bottle it.

The hard-fought triumph over Elche saw Atletico retain a four-point advantage over Barcelona with just four games to go, while Real are six points behind with a game in hand.

The fact that game was played on Friday should give los Colchoneros the upper hand in the clash with Chelsea, where they have been made 2.00 (1/1) favourites to win the first leg.

And with star forward Diego Costa fully recovered from injury, the Spain international is 2.62 (13/8) to add to the seven goals he already scored in this year’s competition.

Key midfielder Arda Turan has resumed training after recovering from a groin injury, but he is unlikely to start, but Raul Garcia and Mario Suarez will be recalled.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Courtois – Juanfran, Godin, Miranda, Filipe Luis – Koke, Gabi, Mario, Garcia – Diego Costa, Villa.

This match comes at a bad time for Chelsea seeing as how it is sandwiched between Premier League fixtures against Sunderland and Liverpool.

The Blues seriously hurt their title hopes in the Premiership by losing at home to Sunderland, and they will be effectively out of the title chase unless they can win at Anfield.

Chelsea first need to negotiate the first leg of their Champions League semi-final clash with Atletico Madrid, and no doubt they face a tough task at Vicente Calderon.

But, given that Jose Mourinho’s side have been pretty disappointing on European travels of late, I am not sure if there is value in backing them not to lose at 1.91 (10/11).

The Portuguese manager faces an anxious wait over star player Eden Hazard, who is a major doubt with a calf injury seeing as how he has yet to resume training.

Meanwhile, Branislav Ivanovic is banned, while Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah are ineligible having played for Benfica and Basel respectively this season. Petr Cech should return from illness.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Cech – Azpilicueta, Cahill, Terry, Cole – Lampard, Luiz – Ramires, Oscar, Willian – Eto’o.