Next Saturday, 30th of August 2014, the current La Liga champions, Atlético Madrid, will take on the newcomers Eibar at the beautiful Vicente Calderón for the second round of Liga BBVA.

Atlético Madrid started the new season on a very slow pace. The Colchoneros were not able to get anything better than a goalless draw from their short trip to Vallecas, where they went head-to-head with their neighbours and city rivals of Rayo Vallecano. With Diego Simeone on the stands due to suspension, the current champions managed to control the first-half of the match, during which they had several opportunities to open the score. Nevertheless, the half-time break had a nefast impact on the Colchoneros, who allowed Rayo to regain control of the match on the second-half and even to create the best goal opportunities.

Atlético Madrid displayed their usual 4-4-1-1 style, with two new arrivals composing the frontmen duo: Raúl Jiménez and Mandzukic. Although they put in a great deal of effort, it wasn’t the best performance of their lives, as the Colchoneros utterly failed when it came to create synchronized attacking movements.

For their next match against Eibar on Saturday, Atlético Madrid will still not be able to have their boss sitting on the bench, since Simeone is facing an eight-match ban due to inappropriate conduct during the Super Cup second leg match against Real Madrid last week.

Regarding Eibar, for the team from the Basque country, who has arrived at the Spanish football top tier for the first time in their history, the match against the current champions will certainly not be easy, though and judging from what they did against Real Sociedad last Sunday, they might be able to inflict some damage into a lethargic Atlético such as the one that played at Vallecas last Monday.

Eibar’s debut at La Liga was “sponsored” by their neighbours, Real Sociedad, and the Armeros managed to inflict a painful defeat to their Basque Country rivals. Gaizka Garitano’s boys put up an almost vintage performance and granted a 1-0 win thanks to an outstanding goal by Javi Lara. Eibar were fairly more dangerous throughout the entire match and they somehow remind us about the romantic conception of the game, where it doesn’t matter how much you spend on overpriced players but rather how well you play the game.

The last time both sides measured forces at Vicente Calderón was back in 2002 on a completely different reality with both teams playing at the Spanish football second tier and Atlético Madrid won by 1-0. The Colchoneros are firm favourites to win the next Saturday’s match but they will need to do much more than what they presented against Rayo if they want to defeat Eibar.

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - DDWWW

Eibar

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WWLLW

Possible Line-ups

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

Eibar (4-4-2) - Irureta - Bóveda - Albentosa - Navas - Abraham - Errasti - Garcia - Lara - Capa - Arruabarrena - Ángel

Prediction

Atlético Madrid 2 Eibar 1