La Liga: Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid Preview, Odds, Prediction

Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid meet in the Spanish La Liga derby on Sunday night. The two sides have a high animosity toward one another, and the rivalry between them is one of the biggest in Europe, let alone in Spain. Atletico has much at stake here because the Mattress Makers need to win and stay among the top four teams in La Liga, which later leads to the UEFA Champions League. Meanwhile, Real already secured the title and the UCL finals after a memorable win over Manchester City.

Preview

Atletico Madrid (+100) isn’t in good shape, and this is the time of the year when they need to narrow the error margin. Instead, Diego Simeone’s unit has wasted too many points, which is why they have to beat the local rivals.

The Mattress Makers have just one win in the previous six events, recording two draws and three defeats along with that, which is way below the expected for this crew. To make it even worse, they were losing points against the teams from the lower part of the standings.

In those six games, five ended with under 2.5 goals, and the same goes for both teams to score. The main reason for that is Atletico’s struggles in the offense, as Felix and the boys failed to score five times during that stretch.

Real Madrid (+275) had a fantastic Wednesday night. Rodrygo scored twice in less than 120 seconds to push his team to the extra time, where they completely knocked out Manchester City and advanced to the UCL finals. Benzema once again scored to back up his Golden Ball ambitions, proving that he is in the best form ever.

The triumph against City was the fourth in the previous five events, and the seventh in the last ten games. In all those victories, Real scored two or more goals, which wasn’t the case early on during the season.

That’s why we’ve seen their recent events efficient, and nine of the past 10 ending with over 2.5 scores. Seven contests during that span were with both teams netting.

Latest News

Hermoso, Joao Felix, and Lemar are out for the home side, and that is a problem for Simeone, especially Felix’s absence.

On the other side, Hazard and Gareth Bale aren’t in the protocol, but these two are long gone from the lineup and Ancelotti isn’t counting on them at all.

Head to Head Games

The first meeting of the year saw Real’s routine victory, as they beat the local rivals, 2-0. Benzema and Asensio scored a goal each to solve the event. Also, five of the past six games have been with just one side scoring, and all six were with two goals at most.

Prediction

This game will be a casual one for the guests, who will probably go out with a mixed lineup, because Ancelotti won’t risk some injury or anything like that against Atletico’s tough defense. That is why we believe that the hosts are going to come out as winners from this event, and eventually stay among the top four teams in Spain.

Pick: Atletico Madrid wins +100