Real Madrid - Atlético Madrid: Champions League semifinal first leg lineups and gamethread

Kick off is less than an hour away, and Diego Simeone and Zinedine Zidane have just confirmed their team sheets for the first leg of this Champions League semifinal clash.

The Spanish press has reported on the “obsession” of both coaches for this first leg: keep a clean sheet. Atlético Madrid are much better at this than Real Madrid, but Atlético will be bringing in yet another new face at right back. And although Madrid have yet to keep a clean sheet in this season’s Champions League, Zidane’s men have scored in an incredible 58 consecutive matches, putting more pressure on Atleti’s back line to do a job tonight and extend a four-month-plus unbeaten run away.

As per his press conference on Monday, Simeone foresees an intense spell from the hosts to start. He expects the mattress makers to compete “like a fan would” and try to take the game to where they feel most comfortable and most able to take advantage of any space.

Anyway, enough talk. Here are the lineups, and the thread starts below.

REAL MADRID: Keylor Navas; Dani Carvajal, Raphaël Varane, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo; Luka Modrić, Casemiro, Isco, Toni Kroos; Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Bench: Kiko Casilla, Nacho, James Rodríguez, Mateo Kovačić, Lucas Vázquez, Marco Asensio, Álvaro Morata.

ATLÉTICO MADRID: Jan Oblak; Lucas Hernández, Stefan Savić, Diego Godín, Filipe Luís; Gabi, Saúl Ñíguez, Koke, Yannick Carrasco; Antoine Griezmann, Kévin Gameiro.

Bench: Miguel Ángel Moyá, Alberto Rodríguez, Tiago, Thomas Partey, Nico Gaitán, Ángel Correa, Fernando Torres.