At the Wanda Metropolitano, Atletico Madrid will compete against the Basque Eibar. The home team is working on the worst season start ever under the guidance of Diego Simeone and will have to show better football on Saturday afternoon not to lose sight of the top. Eibar also started moderately in the season, but managed to win the previous round of play from Real Sociedad in the Basque derby. Can Simeone’s team recover on Saturday?
Atlético:
With only four points from three matches no one who cares about Atlético Madrid will be satisfied. The team, despite a world-class attack line, is having trouble scoring since the victory over fellow city Real in the European Supercup. Past game round, there was no scoring, no goal was shot and Jan Oblak had to collect two goals from visiting Celta de Vigo.
Perhaps the interland period helped to clear the previous game from memory and turn the tide into a home game. Spain was perhaps the team that left the best impression in the Nations League. At Wembley, Spain won 1-2 from England and then World Cup finalist Croatia was defeated 6-0 in a game where Saúl Ñiguez was one of the stars. Simeone hopes to benefit from the positivity that the internationals will take back to the club.
Eibar:
After a loss in the first round against doctoral candidate Huesca and a defeat the next week against Getafe, the Basques managed to win two weeks ago. In injury time, the Brazilian Charles gave his team the victory with a pike dive. This has slightly reduced the pressure on the players and trainer, so the club could enter the international season with confidence. Last week, the team also played a practice match, which was lost 2-1 to the French Toulouse.
In spite of the bad preseason and the difficult start of the season, Eibar managed to score a lot. In the last nine of the ten games, the Basques made at least one goal. Whether that productive series can be continued against the Madrilenians is still the question. Although there was an occasional score in the old Atlético stadium Vicente Calderón, the Basques have never been able to win an away match against Los Colchoneros.
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / NO @ 1.52
