Next Sunday, 30th of November 2014, the current La Liga champions, Atlético Madrid, will go head-to-head with the newly promoted Deportivo La Coruña at the overwhelming Vicente Calderón for round 13 of the Liga BBVA, for a match that the hosts need to win in order not to let their closest rivals and title contenders, Real Madrid and Barcelona, run free at the top of the table.

Atlético Madrid cannot afford any more slip ups if they want to win the Spanish La Liga’s title once again this season. After an unlikely defeat at Anoeta earlier this month, Atlético allowed their neighbours and rivals of Real Madrid to strengthen their position at the top of the table and another upset in a such short period of time might compromise for good the aspirations of revalidating the title this term. Their next opponents, Deportivo, will probably be an easy prey for them, as the team is currently going through a fairly complicated moment at La Liga with just two wins from twelve matches.

Last weekend, Atlético managed to overcome an always complicated Málaga side at Vicente Calderón, defeating them by 3-1 after they put up a top quality performance on the first-half of the match. An early goal by the Portuguese international midfielder Tiago offered the Colchoneros the lead and another one by Griezmann just before the break almost ruled out any possibilities Málaga could have to get back in the match. Nevertheless, the Andalusian team rallied the troops at half-time and Roque Santa Cruz applied some pressure on Atlético when he scored the 1-2 on the 64th minute. The current La Liga champions, however, weren’t affected by Málaga’s goal and scored the third on the 83rd minute, thanks to a rampant header from the Uruguayan defender Godin.

For the clash against Deportivo, El Cholo Simeone will probably still not be able to rely on the contribution of Miranda, who remains sidelined due to injury, and on Gabi, who is currently suspended.

As for Depor, the Galician team is definitely not having an easy comeback in the Spanish football top tier and they are currently third from bottom with just ten points from 12 matches. Their manager, Victor Fernandez, has an Herculean task on his hands in order to maintain the team at La Liga next season and next weekend’s match at Calderón is of major importance for him and his team, since they have not won any of their four last matches.

It is fair to say that Atlético Madrid are firm favourites for next Sunday’s match and judging by their recent two performances against Málaga and Olympiacos, they will probably not experience any major difficulties to overcome a fragile Depor team.

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWL

Deportivo La Coruña

Stats: W-1 L-1 D-3

Recent Form - DDLDW

Possible Line-ups

Atlético Madrid (4-4-1-1) - Moya - Juanfran - Ansaldi - Godín - Gimenez - Tiago - Koke - Griezmann - Mario Suarez - Turan - Mandzukic

Deportivo La Coruña (4-3-3) - Fabri - Juanfran - Lopo - Sidnei - Insua - Luisinho - Rodriguez - Medunjanin - Dominguez - Cavaleiro - Postiga

Prediction

Atlético Madrid 3 Deportivo La Coruña 1