Verdict: Total goals under 2.5
Best odds: 4/7
Bookmaker: William Hill
Atletico Madrid will be playing host to Granada at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium on Saturday evening, in what will be the 23rd La Liga game for both teams, potentially harder to predict than it might appear at first glance.
Atletico Madrid
Though undoubtedly favorites on paper, Atletico haven’t exactly been on sparkling form recently. They haven’t been able to register a single win in any competition in a month now, not since they beat Barcelona in the Supercoppa de Espana semifinal in early January. They lost the final to Real Madrid, and the city rivals confirmed that triumph last week when they met in the league. In the meantime, they managed to get beaten in the Copa del Rey by third-tier side Cultural Leonesa, as well as by Eibar in the league. They also played a goalless draw at home against Leganes, who finished the match with 10 men.
Considered among the favorites for the title at the start of the season, Diego Simeone’s team are sixth in the La Liga table at the moment with 36 points to their name – 13 less than Real who lead the pack.
Their Champions League campaign has so far gone well enough. They’ve secured progress to the knockout stages from a group also containing Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen and Lokomotiv Moscow, but in the round of 16 they will face title holders Liverpool, whose form this season is unprecedented.
Team News
Simeone still cannot count on Diego Costa to lead his line upfront. The former Chelsea striker had neck surgery and though his recovery is reportedly going well, he isn’t ready to play yet. But the manager’s attacking troubles don’t end there. He will also be without Alvaro Morata and Joao Felix, which means he will probably utilize Vitolo and Thomas Lemar, a winger who has often been described as a flop since his €72 million move from AS Monaco, as the most advanced players on the pitch. He also has the option of choosing Ivan Saponjic, or the freshly returned Yannick Carrasco.
The situation isn’t much better at the back either. Fullbacks Kieran Trippier and Santiago Arias are both out, as is centre-back Jose Gimenez. Felipe is suspended. In the middle of the park, the team is without captain Koke.
Granada
As a team freshly back in La Liga, Granada are doing very well. All they will care about, at least when this season is concerned, is survival, and they will be feeling relatively safe at the moment. They are in 10th place with 30 points in the bag, 12 more than Mallorca and Leganes who are hovering on the surface of the relegation zone.
Early in the campaign, they managed to give their opponents quite a headache, not least defending champions Barcelona when they beat them by 2-0 in September.
But their arguably biggest success of the 2019/20 so far is reaching the semi-final of the Copa del Rey, where they will face Athletic Bilbao next week in the first leg. It may still be a long shot, but the fact that both Real and Barcelona are out of the competition may have opened a slight possibility of a trophy for this excellent team.
Team News
Like that of Atletico, Granada’s injury list is quite long. Head coach Diego Martinez won’t be able to call upon defenders Quini, Neyder Lozano and Alex Martinez, as well as winger Fede Vico and midfiedler Angel Montoro.
Conclusion
As has already been said, this game isn’t as straightforward to call as it might seem at first glance. Though quality is still on the side of the hosts, form will come into it and Atletico will find it hard to do much. A 0-0 draw is quite possible, but even if there are goals, there shouldn’t be more than two on both sides combined.
Verdict: Total goals under 2.5
Best odds: 4/7
Bookmaker: William Hill
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