It’s hardly been a month since the start of the new football season, but Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have already played each other twice, and will be going in for another gruesome testing battle later tonight at a jam packed Santiago Bernabeu.
Atletico have been the perennial poor cousins and their fans never enjoyed the complete dominance of Real Madrid in not just Spanish, but world football. But this is not the same Atletico of old. Atletico Madrid have been completely transformed under the leadership of perhaps the most dynamic coach in world football, former Argentina star, Diego Simeone. Simeone has made the Atletico Madrid players confident of their own abilities and made them more than a sum of their parts. And he has made Atletico champions, in the real sense.
Parity has been established between the two bitter local rivals of late because of Atletico’s magnificent victory in last year’s La Liga season, and another in the recent two legged Cop del Rey final or Spanish Super Cup, as it is also called. It would have been even sweeter for Diego Simeone’s men had they held on to their 1-0 lead over Real Madrid just for a couple of minutes more in the finals of the UEFA Champion’s League which they came so close to clinching. But that was not to be. Real Madrid had what they fondly refer to as the decima.
Tonight’s match would be a critical six pointer. A loss for Real Madrid here would see them six points behind Barcelona, if the Catalan side win their match. A lead of six points for Barca over Real could possibly mean game over for the giant Madrid side, so early in the La Liga season, with only 3 matches played. A loss for Atletico Madrid would be dampening for them as well, as that would mean a gap of five points between them and Barcelona. So whichever way this match turns out, Luis Enrique, the Barcelona manager, would be the happiest of all three managers of these three great rivals.
Carlos Ancelloti, would be happy to have Christiano Ronaldo back. Ronaldo missed Portugal’s tie against Albania last Wednesday because if a persistent knee injury, but should be available for this critical game. Ancelloti had rested Ronaldo in the last match against Real Sociedad, which Sociedad went on to win, in what was a huge shock.
Germany’s World Cup winner Sami Khedira is out because of an injury, Xabi Alonso has been transferred to Bayern Munich. So for Ancelotti, Luka Modric and new players Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez will feature in the midfield. Gareth Bale scored a spectacular goal in Wales’ win the Euro qualifiers and should feature as well. Right-back Dani Carvajal is out with a hamstring injury.
For Atletico, few of the best players of last season are out – Thibaut Courtois, Filipe Luis and Diego Costa have been sold to Chelsea and David Villa is in a semi-retirement, having gone to MLS. Diego Simeone signed striker Mario Mandzukic from Bayern Munich, along with other attacking players such as Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad and Alessio Cerci from Torino.
Key Atletico Madrid defender Miranda insisted that they still had every chance of winning a plenty of competitions this year, despite the changes.
“I think Atletico can battle to win all of the competitions they are in this season.We’ll do what we can to bring more silverware to the club. Up until now I’ve been able to be a part of many of the team’s successes and I’m very grateful to the club for that.
“We are going to try to emulate all of the successes from last season.I don’t think we will struggle after the departures.”
Atletico will be without Uruguay international Cristian Rodriguez , who is out with a calf injury.
Our Prediction: Real Madrid 2 – 2 Atletico Madrid. A bitterly fought draw.
