Next Saturday, 14th of March 2015, the current La Liga champions, Atlético Madrid, will travel to Catalunya to measure forces with Espanyol at Estadio Cornella El-Prat for round 27 of the Spanish Liga BBVA. Diego Simeone’s boys are not going through a very positive moment and need to grab a win against the Catalan team before their decisive Champions League match with Bayer Leverkusen next week.

Atlético Madrid are most certainly experiencing their worst moment of the season, as they have only won one of their last five official matches. After their memorable win over their all-time rivals of Real Madrid back in February, Los Colchoneros initiated a slow decay that have cost them several points and at the same jeopardized their chances of revalidating La Liga’s title this season. Last weekend, Atleti didn’t manage to get anything better than a home draw against the surprising Valencia from Nuno Espirito Santo and saw Barcelona escaping at the top of the league table. Los Colchoneros have, in a way, controlled large periods of the match and opened the score still during the first-half, thanks to a goal from Koke. Los Che pilled up the pressure on the last 25 minutes of the match and were blessed with the equalizer on minute 78’, when Mustafi headed home a rebound that came from the crossbar.

Next Saturday’s match will be everything but easy for Atlético, especially if we have in mind what happened last season when Espanyol won by 1-0. For the upcoming match, Diego “El Cholo” Simeone will not be able to rely on the contribution of Mario Mandzukic and Siqueira, since both are sidelined due to suspension. The Spanish talented young midfielder Saul Niguez will probably also miss the match, since he is not yet fully recovered from his injury problems.

As for Espanyol, the Catalan team have also been living a complicated moment recently, as they have lost three of their last five official matches. The last two months have been somehow nefast for Los Periquitos, who have already conceded six defeats, three of them in a row earlier in February. Their manager, Sergio Gonzalez, has plenty of work ahead of him and a match against the current La Liga’s champions might serve as a launchpad for a much needed recovery.

Despite both sides’ recent less impressive period, Atlético Madrid are firm favourites to leave Estadio Cornella El-Prat with the three points in their bags.

Espanyol

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - LLWLW

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - DDLWL

Possible Line-ups

Espanyol (4-4-2) - Casilla - Arvilla - Moreno - Alvaro - Colotto - Lucas - Gonzalez - Canas - Sevilla - Sergio Garcia - Caicedo

Atlético Madrid (4-4-1-1) - Moya - Juanfran - Gamez - Miranda - Godín - Tiago - Gabi - Griezmann - Turan - Koke - Torres

Prediction

Espanyol 1 Atlético Madrid 2