Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Jan 27, 2016 @ 01:06 am

Next Saturday, 30th of January 2016, a super motivated Barcelona will measure forces with their closest title contenders, Atlético Madrid, at the emblematic Camp Nou for Round 22 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

Last weekend, Barcelona clawed a very important win at La Rosaleda, against an opponent that tends to make things hard for the Catalan team every time they visit Andalusia. Barça started the match at full speed and netted the first goal of the afternoon right after the kick-off when Munir received the ball from Luis Suárez and placed it in the empty net. The Uruguayan forward was, however, in an offside position before he assisted Barça’s wonder boy.

Málaga, nevertheless, didn’t lower their arms and were in fact the best team during the first-half. On minute 32’, Juanpi got an assist from the versatile Brazilian forward Charles and leveled the score, thus offering Málaga plenty of reasons to believe they were able to overcome Barça after the break.

Messi pulled the team’s reins in the second-half and, thanks to his spectacular volley goal, Barcelona clawed their fifteenth win of the season and changed places with Atlético Madrid at the top of the table.

Next weekend’s clash against Los Colchoneros is of the utmost importance for Luis Enrique’s men, who still have one match in hand at La Liga. For that particularly complicated match against Atlético, the Asturian manager will still not be able to rely on the services of Rafinha, who remains sidelined undergoing treatment for his long term injury. Neymar, Busquets, Jordi Alba, Arda Turan and Iniesta, who are all recovering from minor injuries, are in doubt out there.

As for Atlético Madrid, Los Colchoneros failed to get anything better than a goalless draw from their home match against Sevilla last time out and ended up by dropping from the first place of La Liga’s table.

After their solid 3-0 win at Gran Canaria against UD Las Palmas, Atlético controlled almost the entire match against the Andalusia team but failed overcome a Sevilla that played more than half an hour with just 10 men, after Vitolo was shown the red card early in the second half.

For next Saturday’s visit to Camp Nou, Diego Simeone will not be able to count on Angel Correa, who is currently suspended, and on the Portuguese defensive midfielder Tiago, who is still recovering from a broken leg. Fernando Torres is in doubt for the match due to an ankle injury.

Before next weekend’s clash, both Barcelona and Atlético Madrid will still get into action for the second-leg of the Copa del Rey Quarter-finals against Athletic Bilbao and Celta de Vigo respectively.

Barcelona

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWW

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - DDWWW

Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Vidal - Pique - Mascherano - Mathieu - Busquets - Rakitic - Iniesta - Neymar - Suarez - Messi

Atlético Madrid (4-4-2) - Oblak - Juanfran - Filipe Luis - Savic - Godín - Koke - Gabi - Niguez - Augusto Fernández - Griezmann - Vietto

Injury List / Suspended Players

Barcelona - Rafinha (inj) - Iniesta (in doubt) - Neymar (in doubt) - Busquets (in doubt) - Jordi Alba (in doubt) - Turan (in doubt)

Atlético Madrid - Tiago (inj) - Fernando Torres (inj) - Correa (sus)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions