Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol
Spanish La Liga
Date: Saturday, 3rd December 2016,
Kick-Off at 19:45 UK
Venue: Estadio Vicente Calderon, Madrid.
Atletico Madrid cruised to a 3-0 victory when they faced Osasuna in their previous La Liga fixture. They lost back-to-back league games before that, with the last one coming against city rivals Real Madrid by a heavy 3-0 margin. The defeat against Real Madrid is their only home defeat this season with the previous 5 producing 4 wins and a draw.
Atletico Madrid have responded to the disappointment of losing the Madrid derby so comprehensively a couple of weeks ago by recording three wins in a row. Los Rojiblancos have notched victories over PSV in the Champions League, Osasuna in La Liga and Guijuelo in the Copa del Rey and in the process have restored some semblance of order, scoring 11 goals in those three games and conceding none.
Atletico Madrid are currently 4th in the league with 24 points, 9 short of city rivals Real Madrid at the top and 3 behind Barcelona and Sevilla in next two places.
Espanyol defeated Leganes 3-0 on matchday 13 to extend their unbeaten run to 7 matches. The Quique Sanchez Flores tutored side have now picked up back-to-back wins for the first time this season, both against newly promoted sides and without conceding. Interestingly, it look like Espanyol are a better side on the road as they haven’t lost since the 6-4 defeat to Sevilla on matchday 1. The 5 away matches since then have recorded 3 wins and 2 draws.
Saturday evening sees Espanyol visit the Estadio Vicente Calderon with the Catalans on a seven-match unbeaten run in La Liga, which has seen them keep four consecutive clean sheets. After a pretty awful run away from home last season which saw them lose 12 of their last 15 away games, Quique Sanchez Flores’s side have done well on the road this term.
Espanyol are currently 12th in the league and a win here could take them to the top half of the table.
Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol: Head-to-head Stats
Atletico have won in both LaLiga clashes on last season – 1-0 at home and 3-1 away.
At home, Atletico Madrid are on a six match winning run against Espanyol in all competitions. They are also unbeaten in the last 5 regardless of the venue with 4 wins and a draw.
Espanyol have failed to score in 4 of the last 5 matches against Atletico Madrid. And only one of the last 8 matches between them have seen over 2.5 goals.
Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol: Prediction
Atletico Madrid is expected to face a tough test from an invigorated Espanyol side. But we can totally relay on their home form and they are the mostly to edge a win. Other than the loss to Real Madrid, Simeone’s men were excellent in all of their home matches in all competitions.
Those who are looking for the goal markets, should approach this with a bit of caution as the previous meetings between these two sides have a low turnout of goals. Also, Espanyol are a good defensive unit pretty similar to Atletico Madrid. So the total number of goals are likely to remain under 2.5.
Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol: Bet Tips
Asian Handicap: Espanyol +1.5 at 2.075
Under 2.5 goals at 11/10 (2.10).
