Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid Prediction - It's Make-or-break Time

Next Saturday, Atlético Madrid will measure forces with Barcelona at Vicente Calderón for the final round of Liga BBVA on a match that will decide who will claim the league’s title this season.

Last Sunday, Atlético Madrid didn’t manage to find a way to overcome a surprising and highly inspired Málaga side at a packed Vicente Calderón. Diego Simeone’s boys have somehow gave in under the weight of responsibility and the importance of the match and looked fairly nervous for large periods of the match, thus missing a good opportunity to already claim La Liga’s title this weekend. The absence of their top scorer - Diego Costa - also probably increased the anxiety of the Colchoneros and, in a way, “forced” Simeone to rearrange his usual tactical style.

Next weekend’s match at Camp Nou will be the first of two consecutive “finals” for Atlético Madrid, who will travel to Lisbon next week to go head-to-head with their all-time rivals Real Madrid for the UEFA Champions League final.

For the match against Barcelona, Diego “El Cholo” Simeone is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on the contribution of the team’s main star Diego Costa, who is not yet fully recovered from his recent injury.

As for Barcelona, the Blaugranas were probably not expecting that, after last Sunday’s draw against Elche, they would be still able to only depend on themselves to claim this season’s La Liga title. Tata Martino’s Barcelona created several goal chances at Martínez Valero but Elche’s inspired goalkeeper Manu Herrera and the team’s well organized defence line managed to successfully dismiss all of the Catalan’s attempts. Furthermore, Barcelona’s attacking movements looked very predictable most of the times and the lack of speed in their game has once again seriously compromised their chances to score.

Next Saturday, despite playing at home, Barcelona will need to put up something very special if they want to cause some trouble to Atlético Madrid, who only need a draw to be coronated the new La Liga’s champions.

For the clash against Los Colchoneros, Tata Martino is not yet certain if he will be able to count on several important players that have not yet recovered from their respective injuries. Neymar, Piqué, Jordi Alba, and Puyol will probably not be able to give their contribution to the team since they are still currently sidelined due to injury.

When both sides met at Vicente Calderón for La Liga last January, the match ended in a goalless draw. Atlético Madrid’s supporters would certainly be happy if the future match has a similar outcome, since that would mean that their side were new Spanish champions. Notwithstanding, since they are playing home, Barcelona are favourites for the match, as they were given a golden chance of reclaiming La Liga’s title in front of their supporters in the very last match of the season. It will be an unpredictable and close match that can go either way.

Barcelona

Stats: W-27 L-5 D-5

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Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-28 L-4 D-5

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Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Pinto - Montoya - Bartra - Mascherano - Adriano - Busquets - Xavi - Iniesta - Pedro - Sánchez - Messi

Atlético Madrid (4-4-2) – Courtois - Juanfran - Miranda - Godín - Filipe Luis - Tiago - Gabi - Turan - Koke -  D. Villa - Diego Costa

Prediction

Barcelona 1 Atlético Madrid 1