Atletico Madrid winger Jose Antonio Reyes believes his side have been hit harder by the loss of Sergio Aguero for this week's Europa League clash than opponents Liverpool have with the absence of Fernando Torres.
Torres has been ruled out for the remainder of the season after undergoing knee surgery in Barcelona, meaning he will miss the chance to return to his former club Atletico for the second time after also being injured for last season's Champions League tie between the two clubs.
The Spain international being ruled out is a boost to Atletico ahead of Thursday's semi-final first leg at the Vicente Calderon, but the Rojiblancos also have a notable absentee with forward Aguero being ruled out through suspension.
Reyes said: "Liverpool have lost Torres for the tie, but we've lost Kun (Aguero) in this first match. Both teams have lost a lot, although I think the absence of Kun is more important because he is key for Atletico.
"We're going to notice his absence, although I hope not too much."
Regarding Liverpool being without Torres, Reyes added: "I recognise that, for us, it's good news, although also it's bad because we like to see the best players on the pitch. On our part, we wish him a speedy recovery."
Atletico have had an up-and-down season and Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Villarreal was their third loss on the trot and left them down in 10th spot in La Liga - closer to the relegation zone than to the top six.
Despite that though, Quique Sanchez Flores' side might yet end up winning two trophies this season after reaching the final of the Copa del Rey and the last four of the Europa League.
Interestingly, Atletico have got to within touching distance of their first major European final since 1986 despite only winning three of their 14 matches on the continent this season - two of which were against Panathinaikos in the Champions League play-off round back in August.
Since those games against the Greeks, Atletico failed to win any their six Champions League group matches, then in the Europa League they beat Galatasary 3-2 on aggregate - courtesy of a last-minute winner in Turkey - before claiming away-goals successes over Sporting Lisbon and Valencia in the last two rounds.
Nevertheless, Atletico will not mind if they get through to next month's final in Hamburg with another away goals triumph over Liverpool, although Reyes is hoping to build a decent advantage in this week's first leg.
"Thursday's game is everything for us. We want to get a good result at home, we are going to give it everything to get through the tie," said the former Real Madrid and Arsenal winger.
"We still haven't started to watch videos, we will do that throughout the week, but when the game arrives we will be ready.
"In any case, we already know each other. We faced Liverpool in the Champions League two years ago and also in pre-season.
"We all know what we are playing for on Thursday. We have a tremendous confidence in ourselves in the Europa League and we need to take advantage of this."
