Madrid Derby Is Huge This Weekend
Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier is set to make a return from a 10-week ban in this weekends highly anticipated Madrid derby.
The England right-back was suspended in December and fined £70,000 after a Football Association panel found he broke betting rules.
Atletico have struggled to find a replacement for Trippier’s creativity during his absence.
He has made 39 appearances in Spain’s top flight since joining from Tottenham for £20m in July 2019 and is available for Sunday’s game as leaders Atletico look to pull eight points clear of neighbors Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, Suarez has also made a significant impact since leaving Barcelona last September.
The former Liverpool forward, Luis Suarez has scored 16 of his side’s 47 league goals, twice as many as Atletico’s second leading scorer Marcos Llorente.
“We want to show why we’re top of the league,” Suarez told La Liga TV.
A first league title for seven years?
Atletico can take a huge step towards securing a first La Liga title since 2014 by beating third-placed Real.
However, Diego Simeone’s side have not beaten Real in the league for five years and have won just two of their last six matches in all competitions.
The did return to winning ways last Sunday with a 2-0 win away to Villarreal.
Madrid Derby: Will Benzema be fit?
Real Madrid finished with 17 more points than Atletico on their way to winning La Liga last season.
But Zinedine Zidane’s side have struggled for consistency in 2020-21, losing four times – one more than the whole of last season.
They arrive at the derby unbeaten in six games although it required an 89th minute equaliser by Vinicius Junior to rescue a point against Real Sociedad on Monday.
Real have an attacking problem to solve, unless Karim Benzema can spring a surprise by recovering from injury in time to feature.
“Karim can be with us and the idea is that he will be but he hasn’t trained yet,” Zidane said on Monday.
Madrid Derby Pre-Match Stats
- Diego Simeone has won only 12.5% of his games as Atletico Madrid boss against Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane in La Liga.
- Simeone could become the Atletico with the most wins in all competitions after drawing level with Luis Aragones (both 308). The Argentine has needed 512 games to reach that figure compared to 612 for Aragones.
- Atletico have failed to win any of their last nine La Liga games against Real.
- Real have not lost any of their three games at Wanda Metropolitano in La Liga, and remain the only team to have played in the new venue without losing in the competition.
- Atletico have failed to score in their last three games against Real Madrid in La Liga (335 minutes), since Antoine Griezmann’s goal in February 2019.
- Real Madrid have won their last three away La Liga games.