BARCA FACE ATLETICO

  • Posted on: 14 January 2014

Barcelona will lock horns with Atletico Madrid in a match that will decide who is going to be the leaders of La Liga. Both clubs are tied at the top of the Spanish league with 49 points and the only factor that is giving Barcelona a slight edge is their goal difference.

It will be a battle between the 2 clubs that have been performing the best in this season. Even with the absence of Lionel Messi for around 6 weeks, the side of Gerardo Martino has coped well as some other stars of the Catalan club have emerged most noticeable was Alexis Sanchez who scored 3 goals against Elche.

Meanwhile for Atletico Madrid Diego Costa and Koke have been some of the more impressive figures. Costa’s string of impressive performances has even attracted the interest of just about every top European club out there.

Possible Starting Lineup

Barcelona

Valdes
Montoya-Pique-Bartra- Jordi Alba
Fabregas-Xavi- - Alex Song- Iniesta
Messi- Sanchez

Atletico Madrid

Thibaut Courtois
Diego Godin-Filipe Luis-Juanfran-Miranda
Tiago-Koke- Arda Turan-Gabi
Diego Costa- David Villa

The Argentine wonder kid is expected to be fully fit and ready to play for the entire 90 minutes of the match against Atletico Madrid. Messi was even suspected to be featured during a few minutes on Barcelona’s match against Elche but Gerardo Martino decided to wait for him to be completely recovered from his injury. It would be a big surprise if Barcelona deploys a different formation than the one used against Elche.

Meanwhile for Atletico Madrid they suffered on finding a break against Malaga’s defence as they faced off in what was their 1st match of 2014 and considering they are now going against what arguably is the best squad in Spain, you can expect some changes to be done in the formation.

Both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have been playing impressively this season and the return of Lionel Messi to the pitch might just be the decisive factor in the final outcome of the match. Diego Costa’s sensational form might be too much for the defence of Barcelona to handle so expect a few goals to be scored with neither side wanting to settle for a draw.Barcelona should still be able to edge a victory.

Barcelona 2 Atletico Madrid 1

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