Atlético Madrid vs Levante Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Dec 31, 2015 @ 03:33 am

Next Saturday, 2nd of January 2016, Atlético Madrid, who returned to winning ways in their last outing, will measure forces with the extremely fragilized Levante at Estadio Vicente Calderón for Round 18 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

After last round’s painful defeat at La Rosaleda, Atlético Madrid rallied their troops and managed to claw the three points from their visit to Vallecas. Fernando Torres didn’t manage to net in his 100th goal for Los Colchoneros and his team had to wait until the dying moments of the match before being able to celebrate their win. A late goal by the Argentinean young forward Angel Correa and another, two minutes later, by the usual suspect, Antoine Griezmann, allowed Atlético to clinch their 12th win of the season and to maintain the pressure on Barcelona at the top of the table.

Atlético are definitely stronger this season when compared to what they did last term. Diego Simeone is once again slowly building a solid team that can actually compete with both Barcelona and Real Madrid for La Liga’s title.

For next round’s predictably easy match against Levante, El Cholo Simeone will still not be able to rely on the services of the Portuguese midfielder Tiago, who remains sidelined recovering from a broken leg.

As for Levante, the Comunidad Valenciana team has only won twice so far this season and are currently at the bottom of La Liga’s table with just 11 points from 17 matches.

After losing at San Mamés to Athletic Bilbao, the Granotes were surprised at home by Málaga last time out and conceded their tenth defeat of the season. Things aren’t easy for Rubi’s men and the young Spanish head coach will need to put up something very special if he wants to take something positive from his team’s trip to Vicente Calderón next weekend.

Casadesus is back in training after a complicated knee injury and will probably be part of Rubi’s plans next time out.

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WLWWW

Levante

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - LLLLD

Possible Line-ups

Atlético Madrid (4-3-3) - Oblak - Juanfran - Filipe Luis - Savic - Godín - Koke - Gabi - Niguez - Carrasco - Griezmann - Fernando Torres

Levante (4-3-3) - Ruben - Lopez - Navarro - Juanfran - Karabelas - Simão - Camarasa - Lerma - Garcia - Roger - Xumetra

Injury List / Suspended Players

Atlético Madrid - Tiago (inj)

Levante - None

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions