Next Sunday, 26th of October 2014, the current Spanish champions, Atlético, will make a small trip to the outskirts of Madrid to measure forces with Getafe at Coliseum Alfonso Pérez for round nine of the Liga BBVA, on a match that the visitors need to win in order to try and close the five point gap that separates them from the league leaders, Barcelona.

After losing to Valencia earlier this month, Atlético’s boss Diego Simeone rallied his troops and the team returned reinvigorated, collecting two wins from their respective matches. Last weekend, Los Colchoneros hosted the match against Espanyol at Vicente Calderón and won by 2-0 but it was during their midweek match against Malmo FF, for the UEFA Champions League, that Atlético put up a great display of power winning by 5-0.

This new season’s Atlético might not be as impressive as the one from the last campaign but it is fair to say that the departures of Diego Costa and Filipe Luis have somewhat weakened the team. The Colchoneros brought in top quality players, such as Mandzukic and Griezmann, but despite some good recent performances, it is fairly evident that they need some more time to be fully synchronized with the rest of the team.

Next weekend’s clash with Getafe will certainly be far from easy and Simeone is certainly aware of that, as his team has already experienced some difficulties to overcome them last term, a match after which the Azulones severely criticized the referee’s work.

For the upcoming clash, El Cholo Simeone is not yet fully certain if he will be able to rely on the contribution of two important midfielders, Gabi and Tiago, who are still recovering from recent injuries.

As for Getafe, Los Azulones are currently living a good period at La Liga as they snatched seven points from their last three matches. After a poor league start with four defeats from five matches, Getafe now seem to have found their path and their game appears to be fairly more consistent now than it was one month ago.

The former Romanian international and current Getafe’s manager, Cosmin Contra, has been developing a great job at the helm of the Madrid’s outskirts team and not only he saved them from an almost certain relegation last season, he is also now trying to transport them to another level.

Although the current La Liga champions are firm favourites to win the next Madrid’s derby, they will need to work a lot to overcome a well organized side such as Getafe, otherwise they might leave Coliseum Alfonso Pérez with an unpleasant defeat.

Getafe

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - WDWLL

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWLWW

Possible Line-ups

Getafe (4-2-3-1) - Guaita - Naldo - Escudero - Valera - Alexis - Rodríguez - Lacen -  Sammir - Sarabia - Yoda - Lafita

Atlético Madrid (4-4-1-1) - Moya - Juanfran - Miranda - Godín - Siqueira - Mario Suárez - Raul Garcia  - Koke - Griezmann - Turan - Mandzukic

Prediction

Getafe 1 Atlético Madrid 2