Atletico Madrid-Barcelona
Football: Spanish La Liga
Sunday, 14th February 2010. Kickoff 21:00

---

Atletico Madrid

Atletico’s season is still in decline. Quique Sanchez Flores urgent appointment in October has not changed much, in my opinion. Old problems remained unsolved; no new perspectives have been since offered. Of course, relegation zone is left behind, but the European cup zone seems a mission impossible for the time being.

Flores’ men mainly get the points through individual efforts of their star-men. Combination play is mostly chaotic and defensively Atletico are as weak as they’ve been for the last years under any manager.

Unlike their opponents the home side has a full squad available. Sergio Kun Aguero has recently fallen out of favor with Quique Flores, so the offensive trio will likely include Jurado, Forlan and Simao Sabrosa.
Atletico is winless in last 3 La Liga outings.

Expected formation and line up :
Atletico M. (4-3-3)
De Gea
Ujfalusi,Perea,Dominguez,Lopez
Tiago,Assunsao,Raul Garcia
Jurado,Forlan,Simao

Barcelona

In recent years Blaugrana’s visits to Vicente Calderon have become a guaranteed highlight. Back in 2006/07 season Barca probably gave its’ best performance at this stadium beating Atletico 0-6. Last two trips, though, have ended in high scoring defeats for the Catalan club.

Upcoming fixture is not promising to be a walk in the park either. Pep Guardiola will have to field an experimental defensive line up as Abidal, Dani Alves, Marques,Picque and Chigrynskiy are all unavailable. Under these circumstances the task before Barcelona looks quite simple: to score more than they would concede. Good thing that Guardiola can count on his best players in the offensive department.

Real Madrid’s win against Xerez yesterday has reduced the handicap between the La Liga giants to just 2 points. Barca’s lead still looks solid, but slight pressure should be felt anyway. Maxwell, Milito and, probably, Geffren will feature at the problematic back line.

Expected formation and line up :
Barcelona (4-3-3)
Valdes
Puyol,Milito,Keita,Maxwell
Busquets
Xavi,Iniesta
Messi,Ibrahimovic,Pedro

Betting advice

Over 2.5 goals is a public bet here and there is no need to further describe the reasons. I think, the tally can be confidently increased to 3 goals.

Whereas the H2H is concerned, I doubt Atletico will be able to take advantage of Barcelona's defensive woes. This team is weak psychologically above all and Quique Flores is absolutely not the man they need at this stage. Young spanish specialist failed to build anything worthy in Valencia and Benfica, despite having great material to work with. In neither of these destinations did he manage to create a positive atmosphere inside the squad.

So my bet would be on Barcelona, even though many underdog lovers are drooling over Atletico here. I really really doubt anything extra-ordinary will happen.

The Statistics :

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Over 3.0 goals @ 1.74 with Bet365

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Barcelona (-0.75) @ 1.90 with Bet365