Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid Preview: Another entertaining match?

What: FC Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid (Liga)

Where: Nou Camp

When: 22:00 CET (20:00 GMT, 01:30 IST)

Current Form:

Barcelona: Villarreal (Home) 5-0, Real Sociedad (Away) 2-2, Osasuna (Home) 8-0, Valencia (Away) 2-2

Atletico Madrid: Osasuna (Home) 0-0, Valencia (Away) 0-1, Racing Santander (Home) 4-0, Sporting Gijon (Home) 4-0.

Current Standings: Barcelona 4^th (8 points), Atletico Madrid 8^th (7 points).

The Spanish League has never been in a more interesting stage after 4 rounds in recent years. Current champions FC Barcelona are held twice to be at 4^th while the other biggest team Real Madrid lost one and drew one in first four to be at a distant 7^th. At this stage, a match between two of the biggest teams at the league is really a mouth watering prospect. FC Barcelona hosting Atletico Madrid, who have a great start to the season for a change, is the biggest match to look forward to this weekend.

Atletico Madrid have always been a tough fixture for Barcelona, but only in away matches. The matches at Nou Camp have ended heavily tilted in the home teams favour. But this time the situation is different. Atletico Madrid might have lost star players who have caused problems to Barcelona defence, Kun Aguero and Diego Forlan but they have rejuvenated their squad signing always goal-hungry Radamel Falcao and much needed playmaker Diego. These two have not only filled the vacant shoes but have also given the Rosiblancos much needed confidence with back to back 4-0 wins. Atletico Madrid, who were known for a leaky defence two years back, have strengthened the backline and have only conceded 1 goal in 5 official games so far. While Barcelona have worst start under the reign of Pep Guardiola being held 4 times in the 7 games played so far. The worst part being they have let in 10 goals.

Team news:

ooh.. moc moc!! he's back

FC Barcelona will be missing their key players Iniesta and Alexis Sanchez and Ibrahim Afellay being added to the injury list with a hamstring pull during practice. Defender Gerard Pique is declared fit and ready to play. Conceding 2 goals each in 5 matches in the 7 played so far doesn’t speak very good of the defence line up who had made it a practice to keep a clean sheet last few years. Missing Iniesta is a big problem for the team as Pep Guardiola doesn’t seem to be very much convinced with Fabregas playing the role so far. Trying to put Fabregas in a more attacking role has forced him to play 3-4-3 in most matches and as shown in the last match, this formation is not as convincing as the normal 4-3-3 had been for Barcelona. Like Valencia, Atletico Madrid also have a number of good wingers like Reyes and Turan, who can cause a lot of trouble to the 3-man defence. Most vulnerable bring the right side of the defence as Dani Alves does not look sure of his role in the new formation. While in 4-3-3 his role in both defence and attack was tremendous for the team, in 3-4-3 he doesn’t convince in any of them.

However, Pep Guardiola has bunch of players who can make impossible possible and expect him to learn from his mistakes in the last match. His team will play in its own way which cannot be explained in any numeric formation. Expect Puyol and Mascherano as the CB with Abidal playing as the left back who will contain himself in the own half. While Alves will play in some position which can be said to be a mixture of Right Back, Right Midfield and Right Winger combining with Messi and Fabregas who will play as “false 9” in turns with David Villa on the left. Xavi, Busquets and Thiago will complete the squad trying to control the passing with their intricate passing.

Expected line up:

Valdes; Alves, Puyol, Pique, Abidal; Busquets, Xavi, Thiago; Cesc, Messi, Villa.

Falcao: A lot depends on him!

Right Back Silvio is not travelling with the team, but he, being more offensive, will not be missed much as Perea will cover as a defensive minded left back. They will, however, miss Diego who suddenly showed the rojiblancos what a playmaker can do to a team. Coach Gregorio Manzano will learn from Unai Emery and try to attack from the left ad in Felipe Luis and Arda Turan, he has players who can cause heavy trouble to flying wingback Dani Alves. However, the danger to the Barcelona defence lies in the name of Radamel Falcao. The new number 9 has shown his urgency to do well and started scoring almost just from the time he was given a jersey. He scored 5 times in the last two matches to lead the scoring chart with opponent Messi and a certain Soldado whose team did not give a good time to any of these two. If Diego plays Koke will take the backseat, else the team would be like

Courtois; Perea, Miranda, Dominguez, Felipe Louis; Gabi, Assuncao; Eduardo Salvio, Koke, Turan; Falcao.

Coaches Speak:

Gregorio Manzano (Atletico Madrid):

We have seen that this is not a two team league. We want more challenging teams in this league. We also have to think that the clubs are not invincible, despite the power that Barcelona and Real Madrid possess. They are monsters, but they can also have their bad days, they make mistakes and the other teams can make the most of this.

Pep Guardiola (Barcelona):

Manzano’s Atletico is different. Even without Kun Aguero and Diego Forlan, they are playing very well. They have been getting loads of goals and great results. These are not coincidence.

Falcao is a great player, very quick on the attack. The return of Pique is very good news. Pique is an important player. When he is fit he is one of our key players.

I don’t think we’ll win all the games until the end of the year. We will lose points.

Prediction:

This match is not going to be a cakewalk for Barcelona. Like the previous rivals Valencia, Atletico will also cause a lot of problems. But still, Barcelona at Nou Camp are from a different world. Expect them to win.

My prediction, a close match but results in favour Barcelona in a good way. 3-1