ATL. MADRID VS LEGANES PREVIEW & PREDICTION
In the Wanda Metropolitano we are presented with the Madrid city derby between Atletico Madrid and Leganes on Wednesday evening. Leganes hopes for a stunt, but it does strike a Atletico Madrid in top form.
Atl. Madrid :
Atletico Madrid is in shape. Last weekend the Madrid team also won the difficult away match in and against Sevilla with big numbers: 2-5. In particular Antoine Griezmann was in the Sanchez Pizjuan with a hat-trick, while Diego Costa also scored his goal. Sports newspaper Marca jokingly dipped the assassination duo of Los Colchoneros into AGDC. Diego Costa did have a big profit this winter, but made his transfer fee of 65 million euros completely true. Since his return to the old litter, Griezmann has started to play better again, so that the captains have already won seven official matches in a row. The backlog of leader FC Barcelona is still a hefty seven points, but with a Catalan slip, the Spanish title battle might still be exciting. Especially in view of last weekend’s play, we certainly can not smooth down Atletico Madrid. Trainer Diego Simeone: ‘In the second half we played our best game of the season.’
Yet Simeone plays with fire. This week both Yannick Carrasco and Nicolas Gaitan were sold to the Chinese Dalian Yifang, which means that the coach now only has seventeen field players at his disposal. As long as the red-whites like now are free from suspensions and injuries there is nothing to worry about, but with three months to go, the Argentine takes a big risk. We are now approaching the phase of the season in which the prizes are being divided. A top four classification in La Liga should not pose any problems, but the Madrid players have also set themselves Europe-wide goals.
Leganes :
Of course Leganes does it with thirty points from 25 rounds and a thirteenth place this season far beyond expectations, but we can not deny that the Madrilenians are in a lesser phase. Last weekend, the blue-whites in their own field against low-flyer Las Palmas in all competitions for the seventh time in a row were devoid of a victory: 0-0. Leganes was clearly the parent, but among others Nordin Amrabat, Nabil El Zhar and Unai Bustinza did not get the ball in the basket. “It is a shame that we did not use our chances,” said trainer Asier Garitano.
Yet the scoreless draw did not come out of the blue completely unexpectedly. Leganes already has a lot of trouble with scoring all season. With only 21 league goals, Los Pepineros are the second-least-scoring squad by La Liga. The blue-witches in their last six official matches just let the net bulge once. Upcoming summer, the people of Madrid should really look for a goaltie thief, because with strikers like Claudio Beauvue and Miguel Angel Guerrero (two goals each) you will not get any further. The defense is a lot better, although it has also been a regular occurrence in recent weeks. In the last away match, visiting Girona, the blue-whites got no less than three goals. Also on Wednesday, Leganes will face another tough night, because with defensive midfielder Ruben Perez and center defender Dimitrios Siovas (both suspended) Garitano must miss two key players.
PREDICTION: Under 2.5 goals @ 1.68
