With Real Madrid having fun with good momentum and Atletico Madrid on a little bit of a hunch, the town rivals meet within the semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday within the first of three matches between the golf equipment in lower than a month.
After the Super Cup, Madrid and Atletico will conflict once more on Jan. 18 within the spherical of 16 of the Copa del Rey, after which on Feb. 4 on the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium of their second Spanish league match of the season.
Madrid has received its final 5 video games in all competitions and is having fun with an unbeaten run of 19 consecutive matches. The crew’s solely loss this season got here towards Atletico within the Spanish league, 3-1 on the Metropolitano stadium, which is the place the Copa’s single-elimination recreation will happen subsequent week.
It’s additionally the place Atletico received 20 in a row throughout all competitions to tie a membership document in a streak that ended with a 3-3 draw towards Getafe within the Spanish league in December.
Diego Simeone’s crew went on a powerful run after that house win towards Madrid, advancing to the knockout rounds of the Champions League and getting close to the highest of the Spanish league. But it has hit some speedbumps lately, profitable solely two of its final 5 matches in all competitions.
One of its two latest losses got here at Girona, the second-place crew on the league’s midway level. The 4-3 defeat dropped Atletico to fifth place, exterior the Champions League locations. It sits 10 factors behind chief Madrid.
Atletico and Madrid additionally met within the 2020 closing, with Madrid profitable on penalties in what marked the primary time the Super Cup was taken to Saudi Arabia in a profitable multi-year deal for the golf equipment and the Spanish soccer federation.
The Super Cup’s new “final four” format pits collectively the highest two groups within the Spanish league final season and the final two Copa del Rey finalists.
The different semifinal can be performed on Thursday between Barcelona and Osasuna, final season’s runner-up to Madrid within the Copa del Rey.
Atletico ahead Antoine Griezmann enters the sport tied with Luis Aragonés because the membership’s all-time high scorer with 173 targets.
Madrid stays with out a few of its most important gamers due to long-term accidents, together with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and central defenders Éder Militão and David Alaba. Young Turkey worldwide Arda Güler made his debut in a Copa del Rey match this previous weekend and will have extra minutes in Saudi Arabia. Vinícius Júnior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham are set to steer Madrid’s assault.
TITLEHOLDER BARCELONA
Barcelona beat Madrid in final yr’s Super Cup closing to win its first title because the arrival of coach Xavi Hernández and the departure of Lionel Messi.
Xavi’s crew arrives at this yr’s match below strain after a sequence of lackluster performances that lately drew jeers from its house followers.
The Catalan membership edged fourth-division membership Barbastro 3-2 within the third spherical of the Copa del Rey on Sunday. It was coming off hard-fought wins towards last-place Almeria and midtable Las Palmas within the Spanish league, and earlier than that it hadn’t received in three straight video games in all competitions.
Barcelona is third within the Spanish league, seven factors behind Madrid and Girona.
Osasuna, the shock Copa finalist final season, additionally arrives on the Super Cup having struggled lately. It has received solely two of its final 10 matches in all competitions, and wanted additional time to eradicate lower-division membership Castellon within the third spherical of the Copa on Sunday.
Osasuna is twelfth within the Spanish league. It hasn’t completed decrease than eleventh since returning to the primary division in 2019.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
