Atletico Madrid head coach Diego Simeone has told his players to be prepared for a fierce atmosphere at Anfield when his side takes on Liverpool on Wednesday, after what he described as a costly lapse in concentration during their defeat at the weekend.

Atletico let in two goals within three minutes in the second half as they went down 3-0 to Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

Last year, Atletico made the trip to Merseyside for their opening Champions League match and found themselves 2-0 behind inside six minutes. They fought back to make it 2-2, but were eventually beaten by a late Virgil van Dijk goal in added time.

Atleti have kept only one clean sheet in their last 16 Champions League matches and have been beaten on each of their previous five trips to England.

"I don’t think what happened to us in Bilbao was because of motivation, it was a lack of awareness, switching off," said Simeone, whose team reached the semi-finals last season.

Julian Alvarez is not expected to start after missing out on a move to Barcelona.

"We are going into a marvellous stadium, with a great atmosphere, and we have to look at the start of the game knowing it will be full on."

Simeone admitted that the transfer speculation surrounding forward Julian Alvarez was not helpful before the window closed, with the player missing two days of training because of illness after discovering that he would not be allowed to join Barcelona.

The Argentina international is not expected to start, and neither is striker Jonathan David, who joined on loan from Juventus on 1 September and has made only two substitute appearances so far, although both are expected to feature at some stage.

Simeone added: "Jonathan has only just arrived, Julian is getting better. I don’t see that he could start tomorrow, but I am sure he could help at some point in the game."

Atleti came away from Anfield with nothing last season, but they have enjoyed success on Merseyside in the recent past.

In 2020, Simeone’s side knocked Liverpool out of the Champions League in the round of 16, winning 3-2 at Anfield after extra time to complete a 4-2 aggregate victory, having won the first leg 1-0 in Madrid.

Simeone will be hoping for a similar outcome on Wednesday against a Liverpool team that beat Ipswich 2-0 on Friday to give Andoni Iraola his first win since replacing Arne Slot.