Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol: Preview and Prediction

Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol
Spanish La Liga
Date: Saturday, 3rd December 2016,
Kick-Off at 19:45 UK
Venue: Estadio Vicente Calderon, Madrid.

Atletico Madrid cruised to a 3-0 victory when they faced Osasuna in their previous La Liga fixture. They lost back-to-back league games before that, with the last one coming against city rivals Real Madrid by a heavy 3-0 margin. The defeat against Real is their only home defeat this season with the previous 5 producing 4 wins and a draw. Madrid are currently 4th in the league with 24 points, 9 short of city rivals Real at the top and 3 behind Barcelona and Sevilla in next two places.

Espanyol defeated Leganes 3-0 on matchday 13 to extend their unbeaten run to 7 matches. The Quique Sanchez Flores tutored side have now picked up back-to-back wins for the first time this season, both against newly promoted sides and without conceding. Interestingly, it look like Espanyol are a better side on the road as they haven’t lost since the 6-4 defeat to Sevilla on matchday 1. The 5 away matches since then have recorded 3 wins and 2 draws. Espanyol are currently 12th in the league and a win here could take them to the top half of the table.

Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol: Head-to-head Stats

• Atletico have won in both LaLiga clashes on last season – 1-0 at home and 3-1 away.
• At home, Atletico Madrid are on a six match winning run against Espanyol in all competitions. They are also unbeaten in the last 5 regardless of the venue with 4 wins and a draw.
• Espanyol have failed to score in 4 of the last 5 matches against Atletico Madrid. And only one of the last 8 matches between them have seen over 2.5 goals.

Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol: Prediction

Atletico Madrid is expected to face a tough test from an invigorated Espanyol side. But we can totally relay on their home form and they are the mostly to edge a win. Other than the loss to Real Madrid, Simeone’s men were excellent in all of their home matches in all competitions.

Those who are looking for the goal markets, should approach this with a bit of caution as the previous meetings between these two sides have a low turnout of goals. Also, Espanyol are a good defensive unit pretty similar to Atletico Madrid. So the total number of goals are likely to remain under 2.5.