Who: Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid What: La Liga Where: Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid, Spain When: Sunday, September 20, at 4:15pm ( ) How to follow: Al Jazeera Sport will bring you all the build-up from before our live text commentary stream Atletico host bitter city rivals Real for the Madrid derby as both sides look to keep up with early La Liga pacesetters Barcelona. Madrid trail unbeaten champions Barcelona at the top of the table by three points, with Atletico third. Atletico have bounced back from back-to-back defeats to Bilbao and Liverpool earlier in September, beating Real Sociedad 3-0 and Osasuna 4-0 in their last two games.
Real come into the game in decent form under boss Jose Mourinho but have had wobbles this month, with a defeat to Betis and scoring late to beat bottom club Elche after squandering a two-goal lead. Atletico Madrid thrashed Osasuna 4-0 on Wednesday to build some form in the run-up to Sunday’s derby clash against rivals Real Madrid. Jonathan David, Lee Kang-in, Robin Le Normand and Alex Baena’s goals helped Diego Simeone’s side cruise to a comfortable home victory.
They were without injured striker Julian Alvarez, but it did not matter after they secured a second straight win to cut the gap on top two Barcelona and Real Madrid. The comfortable victory was important for an Atletico side with lots of new faces still bedding in, after two defeats in their three matches prior. Real went 2-0 up inside 33 minutes through a Matias Dituro own goal and Kylian Mbappe, but second-half strikes from Abiel Osorio and Fer Nino hauled Elche level before Espi restored the visitors’ lead in the 91st minute.
It was the second time in six league matches that the 21-year-old Espi had come off the bench to score a late winner, although Mourinho remained concerned by Real’s failure to control the second half in advance of Sunday’s derby against Atletico Madrid. It’s harder to know why, but it’s easy to understand that there are matches that seem over and, in the end, aren’t,” said Mourinho. I like my team to score goals … but I also like controlling matches,” explained Mourinho.
It’s not about the goals, it’s about giving away control of the match.” The Opta supercomputer has made Real Madrid the favourites, with a win probability of 46.6 percent. Atletico were given a 28.3 percent chance of winning, while a draw was estimated at a 25.1 percent likelihood. The rivals have faced each other on 243 occasions; Real Madrid won 125 games, Atletico won 60, while 58 matches ended as draws.
Vinicius Jr scored twice as Real Madrid fought back to beat Atletico Madrid 3-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu in a breathless Spanish capital derby in March. Atletico’s Ademola Lookman opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, finishing a slick counterattack involving Matteo Ruggeri and a delightful back-heel from Giuliano Simeone. Vinicius equalised from the penalty spot in the 52nd minute, after David Hancko clumsily tripped Brahim Diaz, and Federico Valverde capitalised on a Jose Maria Gimenez error three minutes later to make it 2-1 to Real.
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