Estadio Vicente Calderon, Madrid (Spain) will be hosting on Saturday, 11 January 2014, an Spanish Primera Division match between Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona.
Atletico Madrid are
in this league season in an astonishing form. The team from Madrid in
18 league rounds lost only once – won 16 times and drew once. As a
result, Atletico occupy now the 2nd place in the Spanish league table with the same amount of points as leading Barcelona. Moreover, the gap between them and the 3rd
Real Madrid is five points. Diego Simeone’s boys showed the same high
performance in the Champions League, where they won five games and drew
only one. In the Primera Division they managed to win the Madrid Derby
against Real, 1:0, which additionally shows their persistence and
attitude during this season. Huge part of the present state has been
played by Diego Costa, who scored 19 goals in 18 league matches. In
addition the Atletico’s home performance is particularly good this
season – they haven’t lost yet. They won all nine home games with the
present total goal balance 33:6.
As for the Blaugrana, Marc Bartra was rested
midweek, but could shake off his hamstring strain in time to partner
Gerard Pique in defence. Neymar is available following a bout of
gastroenteritis and also Leo Messi is fully fit.
After nearly two
months in the sidelines with an injury, Messi returned against Getafe
for the Copa del Rey in high fashion scoring two goals in less than 30
minutes. The Argentinian star has scored more goals against Atletico
Madrid (17) than he has scored against any other team in the league,
during his illustrious career.
These two teams did contest the
Supercopa de Espana last August, with Barcelona emerging as champions on
away goals after a 1-1 draw at the Vicente Calderon was followed by a
goalless affair at Camp Nou.
Barcelona are undefeated in their
last 8 matches against Atletico in all competitions. Atletico have
scored at least 2 goals in their last 9 home matches and kept a clean
sheet in 5 of their last 7 matches in La Liga.
Possible line-ups:
Atletico Madrid (4-4-2): Courtois; Felipe Luis, Miranda, Godin, Juanfran; Koke, Tiago, Gabi, Arda Turan; Villa, Diego Costa.
FC Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes; Jordi Alba, Bartra, Piquè, Dani Alves; Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets; Neymar, Sanchez, Messi.
FC Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes; Jordi Alba, Bartra, Piquè, Dani Alves; Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets; Neymar, Sanchez, Messi.
Match Details and Timings:
Atletico Madrid vs FC Barcelona
Football: Spanish Primera Division, 21. round
Match date: Saturday, 11 January 2014
Kick Off Time: 20:00 CET - 19:00 GMT - 8:00 pm CET
Stadium: Estadio Vicente Calderon, Madrid, Spain
Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz
You can watch the match here: Link 1 , Link 2 [Live Scores]
Atletico Madrid vs FC Barcelona
Football: Spanish Primera Division, 21. round
Match date: Saturday, 11 January 2014
Kick Off Time: 20:00 CET - 19:00 GMT - 8:00 pm CET
Stadium: Estadio Vicente Calderon, Madrid, Spain
Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz
You can watch the match here: Link 1 , Link 2 [Live Scores]
