In one of the most fiercely contested seasons of Spanish top-flight football in recent years, the race for the title is expected to go down to the wire, as Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona welcome Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou on Saturday. Los Colchoneros are table toppers with 76 points, and third-placed Barca have a monumental opportunity to claim the top spot with a victory this weekend.
Barcelona are enjoying a decent run of form and have won eight of their last ten matches in La Liga. However, the 2-1 defeat against bitter-rivals Real Madrid in early April and a surprise loss to Granada at home put a dent on their hopes to lead the table. Koeman and his team still have the last chance to redeem the spot for themselves – but only through a victory over their weekend’s opponents. Messi’s brace at Mestalla last Sunday afternoon gave the Blaugranas a necessary momentum after the Granada result. The Argentine is in sublime form yet another season running, and his numbers of 26 goals and 9 assists in the 2021 calendar year brought the club back to the title hunt by early March. The gap from leaders Atletico to third-ranked Barca are by a couple of points, and Koeman knows his side require all three points on Saturday, as because a loss would shatter Barca’s dreams of La Liga glory while a draw would open the gates for Real Madrid to finish second.
Atletico are also undoubtedly under serious pressure of holding onto the lead for these last few weeks of the season. They have been persistent throughout the 2020/21 campaign and fully capitalised on both Barcelona and Real Madrid’s ‘transitional year’. But their fantastic run stumbled to a halt in March, and they have won 5, drawn 3 and lost twice in their last 10 league outings. Nevertheless, the team’s defensive record has again been decisive, and Los Colchoneros have conceded just 22 times in their 34 matches, while their attacking threats have scored 61 goals down the other end. It would certainly be heart-breaking for Atleti fans to see their team fail to lift the La Liga crown after all the hard work, but those hopes are in serious danger should they suffer another defeat at Catalonia.
Key Players
There’s nothing much to add about the great Leo Messi. The skipper has scored 36 goals assisting 14 another in 44 overall appearances, and the club has been desperate to keep him at the Camp Nou for a few more years. With his contract expiring next month and now that Barca are on the brink of doing the double this season, Messi might just opt to stay at his boyhood club and mentor the young squad in the process.
Frenkie de Jong in his second year at the Catalan capital has regained his form and has shone for the Cules ever since Koeman’s arrival. The central midfielder partnering with Pedri has revamped Barcelona’s ageing and sloth midfield through their energetic presence in the middle of the pitch. Playing further upwards than last season, de Jong is also his team’s fourth-highest scorer with 7 goals. : The Dutchman creates 75.8 passes per game with 91% passing accuracy and his versatility at defense allows him to make 0.7 clearances and 1.2 interceptions on an average each game.
Arriving from Benfica in 2014, Jan Oblak has been nothing other than phenomenal under the sticks. The Slovenian has kept 158 clean sheets in 299 matches for Atletico in all competitions, or simply he hasn’t conceded in 53% of the games he played. During his time at Madrid, Oblak won four Zamora trophies or La Liga’s version of Golden Glove between 2016 and 2019 and looks set for his fifth with 22 clean sheets so far.
Luis Suarez: The Barcelona great was forced to leave his beloved club last summer due to Barca’s exponential wage bill, but the striker took his lethal form to Madrid along with his other baggage. Even at the twilight of his career, Suárez played a full 90 minutes in 12 of his last 17 appearances and with his 19 goals in 28 La Liga games, the Uruguayan is Atletico’s top scorer, six ahead of second-placed Marcos Llorente. Suarez was ruled out in the reverse fixture against Barcelona with COVID-19 but is expected to start against his former employers.
Prediction
With four teams still in the hunt for the La Liga glory, the remaining few matchdays are poised for exciting drama and agony. Barcelona’s renewed momentum and that man’s form will certainly make the difference between the two sides as a win for Barcelona is expected.
However, Diego Simeone and his men arrive at the Camp Nou after an easy win against Elche last week, which could be used as a platform to cement their position in the league table.
Barcelona will miss Ansu Fati, Phillippe Coutinho and Martin Braithwaite through injuries, while Atletico have all their players available for the epic clash on Saturday.
