Match preview: Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid

Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid

Real Madrid will travel to their local rivals at the Vicente Calderon to further strengthen their position at the top of the Liga table. Atletico Madrid will have to put their best foot forward in order to get back on track in the title race.

Having gone 27 games unbeaten, Real Madrid would not have asked for a better time to visit their bitter local rivals. After thrashing Shalke away from home, Real Madrid must be running high on confidence. The opportunity to reduce the chances of your local rival’s title hopes must be an added advantage for the whites.

Real Madrid are currently on a dream run with a 27 games unbeaten streak. Los Blancos are comfortably poised on the top of the league table three points clear of Barcelona and Atletico, who both suffered shock defeats over the weekend.

Real Madrid are very stable and playing their best football in recent years under Ancelotti’s 4-3-3 system. Not having lost a single game this year, Real Madrid will not like their unbeaten streak to end anytime soon. The new signings have settled well and are showing what they can do with each passing gameweek.

The Real Madrid defence has been hard to break down and is not as vulnerable as it was at the start of the season. The attackers are especially confident and are running the oppositions ragged in their attempts to find the net.

Carlo Ancelotti will have all the players except Sami Khedira available for the derby. The positive news for all Madridistas is the return of their ‘commander’, Cristiano Ronaldo. The Balon D’Or winner will return to the line-up after serving a 3-match band for a controversial red card.

The forward will be more than eager to run riot at the Vicente Calderon after missing out from La Liga action for 3 weeks. Carlo will play his best starting 11 with Lopez between the sticks, supported by Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos and Marcelo in defence. Modric, Alonso and Di Maria will take their usual places in the centre of midfield. Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo will latch on to the chances in the final third of the field.

After displaying some strong performance for the major part of the season, Atletico seem to be faltering at the most pivotal time of the season. The 3-0 loss against Osasuna over the weekend raised some serious doubts over Rojiblancos ability to challenge Barcelona and Real Madrid for the La Liga title.

Atletico seem like they have run out of the motivation to fight for the title. The lack of depth isn’t helping Simeone very much either. Atletico have lost 4 of their last 6 matches and are not in a good position to face Real Madrid. The only positive for Atletico seems to be the fact that they did beat Los Blancos in the reverse fixture at the Bernabeu. However, Simeone’s men run the risk of being harshly thrown out of the title race after being considered the dark horse of La Liga.

Simeone can take heart from Atleti’s unbeaten home league record this season, but the most recent encounters between the two sides saw Real cruise to a 5-0 aggregate victory in the Copa del Rey semi-finals in January. Atletico have a chance to make the League level again in terms of points and they will go all out in their attempt to do so. However, fatigue and lack of motivation remain the major hurdles in their ambitions.

Simeone will field the best possible starting 11 in this all important Madrid derby. Courtois will take his place between the sticks and will be supported by Juanfran, Miranda, Godin and Kasmirski. With Tiago out injured, the midfield will consist of Turan, Fernandez, Suarez and Koke. Diego Costa and Raul Garcia will play upfront.

Prediction:

A difficult game to predict as both the teams are strong and possess the ability to beat each other. However, going by the recent run of forms and squad strength, Real Madrid certainly hold the advantage in this particular fixture. It will be a close game, but Ancelotti’s men might just emerge victorious.

Atletico Madrid 1-2 Real Madrid