Malaga vs Atletico Madrid Prediction And Preview – 20/12/15
La Liga Preview – Malaga vs Atletico Madrid Prediction
Marcos Angeleri picked up a knock in Wednesday’s defeat to Mirandes and will need to prove his fitness ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Atletico Madrid. Flavio Ferreira remains the only long-term absentee for Los Boquerones, so Javier Gracia is likely to revert to the starting XI that brought success away to Rayo Vallecano last weekend.
Atletico Madrid are still without the injured Tiago, but other than that Diego Simeone has a fully fit squad to pick from. Luciano Vietto was handed a rare start against Athletic Bilbao, but didn’t capitalise on his opportunity to impress and could be replaced in the starting XI by Ángel Correa who came off the bench to set up Antoine Griezmann for the winning goal.
Possible Line-ups
Malaga: 4-2-3-1 formation: Kameni; Rosales, Albentosa, Weligton, Torres; Filipenko, Fornals; Duda, Amrabat, Carlos; Cop
Atletico Madrid: 4-4-2 formation: Oblak; Juanfran, Giminez, Godin, Luis; Niguez, Gabi, Koke, Carrasco; Correa, Griezmann
Statistics
- Atletico Madrid have won their last 5 matches in La Liga.
- Malaga have won just 1 of their previous 6 La Liga matches.
- Atletico Madrid have kept a clean sheet in 6 of their last 8 away matches in La Liga.
- Malaga have failed to score in 4 of their 7 home matches in La Liga this season.
- There have been under 2.5 goals scored in Atletico Madrid’s last 6 away games in La Liga.
- Atletico Madrid are unbeaten against Malaga in the last 8 La Liga meetings.
Prediction
Malaga stopped the rot when coming back from a goal down to win 1-2 away at Rayo Vallecano last weekend, but were embarrassed in a 0-1 defeat to lowly Mirandes in the Copa del Rey, so Javi Gracia clearly still has work to do. Conversely, Atletico Madrid are ticking along nicely and have a good chance of claiming top spot with a victory here, with Barcelona not in La Liga action this weekend due to their Club World Cup commitments.
Atletico’s recent run of form has been built on their solid defensive displays and it will be difficult for Malaga to find a way through their back-line. The home supporters at La Rosaleda will demand that their side go on the offensive whenever they are in possession and that is likely to play into the hands of the visitors who can be devastating on the counter-attack.
Tips
Atletico Madrid to win at 4/5 with Betfred
Atletico Madrid to win to nil at 6/4 with Paddy Power
Atletico Madrid to win 2-0 at 15/2 with 888sport
What are your predictions?
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