Atletico Madrid will attempt to transfer their recent impressive domestic form onto the European stage on Wednesday night.

They make the short hop across to Portugal to take on Porto in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Few would have given Atletico much hope of turning things around after they were outclassed by Porto in the first meeting and fortunate to escape with a 2-2 draw, but since then the Rojiblancos have started to build up a head of steam following impressive league performances against top two Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Against runaway leaders Barca, Atletico fought back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to claim a thrilling 4-3 victory, while on Saturday they were unlucky not to record their first derby win over Real in a decade after creating much the better chances in a 1-1 draw.

Striker Sergio Aguero said: "We have a lot of belief that we are going to get through.

"As soon as the derby finished, I started to think about Porto and looking for a place in the quarter-finals.

"We are going to give it everything, absolutely everything, to get through the tie while knowing that we will be facing a very difficult opponent who have home advantage.

"We have to take some good things out of both the games against Barca and Madrid, because we played differently, but very well."

He added in El Mundo Deportivo: "It's true that we've improved immensely and we've recovered our confidence little by little.

"We know that we are one of the best teams in Europe because we are in the last 16 and we have a lot of quality.

"The whole team are looking forward to tomorrow's match with Porto and we are convinced that we are going to win and go through."

Atletico midfielder Paulo Assuncao, who moved to the Spanish side last summer after three seasons with Porto, knows it will not be easy against his former side, though.

"They are a great team and I think they will play like they did in Madrid. We have to be focused for the whole 90 minutes and correct the errors we made in the first game," he said.

"We know that we are going to have to work hard. Porto are a strong team and have a lot of experience in these types of competitions."

While Assuncao looks set to face his former side, another Porto old boy misses out as Giorgios Seitaridis has been omitted from the squad by coach Abel Resino.

Luis Garcia, who won the 2005 Champions League with Liverpool, Ever Banega and Alvaro Domínguez are also missing but Raul Garcia returns after sitting out the derby through suspension.

Like Atletico, Porto have also picked up four points from their two league games since the first leg, drawing with Sporting Lisbon and then seeing off Leixoes 4-1 away last weekend to stay two points clear at the top of the table.

Coach Jesualdo Ferreira said: "It was an excellent display which featured some very good team moves. It was a fair result that gives us confidence."

Porto striker Hulk, who netted his side's second goal in that match and gave the Atletico defence a torrid time in the first meeting, told RTP1: "I'm happy to have helped the team. We got all three points, which was the objective.

"From now on we will think about Atletico Madrid. Before we thought only about Leixoes. Now we're going to try to win, in order to continue in the Champions League."

Cristian Rodriguez and Cristian Sapunaru both missed that game because of suspension and injury respectively but have returned to the squad and could feature.

Ferreira will be without captain Pedro Emanuel and defenders Jorge Fucile and Nelson Benitez, who are all injured, while he has omitted youngsters Ivo Pinto and Rabiola.