Next Saturday, 20th of September 2014, the current La Liga’s champions, Atlético Madrid, will entertain a fairly interesting and enthusiastic Celta de Vigo side at Vicente Calderón for the fourth round of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

After an impressive win at Santiago Bernabéu last weekend, Atlético Madrid succumbed to the power of the Greek Gods and stumbled at Piraeus on their UEFA Champions League match against Olympiacos last Tuesday’s night. The Diego Simeone’s men failed to overcome a very well structured and organized Greek team, lead by the former Real Madrid’s legend Míchel González. Olympiacos were always the most dangerous team and, although the Colchoneros tried to bounce back, there were the Greeks the ones celebrating after the final whistle.

The Atlético that faced off Olympiacos was nothing but a shadow of the team that imposed the second consecutive defeat of the season to their all time rivals and neighbours last weekend, as they missed their usual stone cold “killer” instinct in front of the goal.

Some claim that Atlético are not the same team they were last season and that there is something missing at the team this term, but the truth is that they have already beaten the all-powerful Real Madrid twice so far and they keep an undefeated tab at La Liga, albeit with only three matches played.

As for Celta de Vigo, the Galician team has been presenting some attractive football so far this season and, as well as their next Saturday’s opponents, they are yet to be defeated at the 2014-15 edition of the Liga BBVA. Toto Berizzo’s team let victory slip away on the dying moments of the match last weekend when they measured forces with Real Sociedad at Los Balaídos. Celta controlled for large periods of the match, but after Cabral’s injury on the second-half, the Galician team started to act nervously and slowly began losing control of the match.

Celta’s frontman trio have probably been the team’s main weapon so far, as Orellana, Nolito and Larrivey tend to transform the lives of the opposition’s defence lines into a living nightmare.

For the match against Los Colchoneros, Berizzo is not yet certain if he will be able to count on Cabral, who is still recovering from his injury, and he already knows that both Oubina and Augusto Fernández will not be taking part on the clash, since they remain sidelined due to injury.

When both sides met at Vicente Calderón last season, the home side won by 2-1 but experienced some difficulties in overcoming a Celta side led by Luis Enrique back then. Next Saturday match will be a tactical feud between two top quality managers, Diego Simeone, who will still not be able to sit on the bench due to suspension, and Toto Berizzo, an enthusiastic follower of Bielsa’s game that is slowly transforming Celta. Atlético are favourites to win the match, but the Galician side might just have a word to say.

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

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Celta

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

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Possible Line-ups

Atlético Madrid (4-4-1-1) - Moya - Juanfran - Miranda - Godín - Ansaldi - Tiago - Gabi - Koke - Griezmann - Cerci - Mandzukic

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sérgio Álvarez - Planas - Fontàs - Gomez - Jonny - Álex Lopez - Radoja - Krohn Dehli - Orellana - Nolito - Larrivey

Prediction

Atlético Madrid 1 Celta de Vigo 1