MADRID, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Atletico Madrid central defender Stefan Savic is setting his sights on his side reaching a third UEFA Champions League final in 10 years.
The veteran stopper, who has made 291 first-team appearances since joining the club in 2015, formed part of the side that lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League final in 2016, but believes that after knocking Inter Milan out in the last-16, Atletico now has a chance to reach another final.
The Spanish side is the slight favorites to beat Borussia Dortmund and has an advantage of having 10 days without a game to prepare for Wednesday's first leg in Atletico's Metropolitano Stadium.
"It's better for us to have longer time to prepare for such an important game," he admitted in the El Mundo Deportivo newspaper.
"I don't know if it's better or not that the first game is at home, because if you do a good job in the first leg, it's difficult for your rival to overturn the result later. The big thing is that we are at home now," he added.
Atletico have only lost two home games all season, while having been less reliable on the road, with seven defeats in La Liga and a 3-0 thrashing away to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey.
"We don't know what the problem is away from home, but we won away to Villarreal in our last match and hopefully that means we have turned things around when it really matters, which is at the end of the season," said Savic.
He described Borussia Dortmund as "a very dynamic side, with a lot of pace."
"We have to be careful with them because they are powerful in attack and fast, so we can't allow them space," commented the defender.
"Nobody is going to end our dream of playing another Champions League final, we have got to the final and for one reason or another, we haven't won, but I hope we can get to another final soon and I hope it's this year, but we have to go step by step as it's still a long road to go," said Savic. ■
