Palma urges an Atlético between the wars
Simeone’s men visit a Mallorca in trouble before the decisive duel against City
MADRID, 8 Apr. (SportsFinding) –
Atlético de Madrid parks this Saturday in Palma (4:15 p.m./Movistar LaLiga) its ‘Champions’ battle in search of a seventh consecutive victory that settles it in the noble zone of LaLiga Santander, in a thirty-first day in which RCD Mallorca, led by exrojiblanco Javier Aguirre, needs to break a disastrous streak of seven straight losses.
A goal by Kevin de Bruyne ended last Tuesday with the resistance of the rojiblancos at the Etihad Stadium (1-0), who came to raise two lines of five players behind the ball in the first round of their continental match against Manchester City. An approach that raised doubts again.
“We cannot value what people from outside may think or speak, we have to focus on this league of 14 games that we started against Osasuna. Tomorrow we have a rival who is in great need, just like us, and it will be hard, difficult and in an always complicated field. From humility, we must continue working and do what is best for Atlético”, warned Diego Pablo Simeone.
Before everything is resolved next week, the current champions of LaLiga Santander resume their ‘league of 14’, in which, practically ruled out to revalidate the title, they seek to confirm their presence in the Champions League next year as soon as possible , something that right now they treasure with their fourth place.
With 57 points, the same as FC Barcelona -third, with one game less- and Sevilla -fifth-, they have four points ahead of the first of the contenders for the first four places, all thanks to a series of six consecutive wins , the last of them against Deportivo Alavés (4-1).
A brace from Joao Félix and another from Luis Suárez sentenced a match more difficult than the result appears for those of ‘Cholo’, who have already warned that they will not introduce hardly any changes in the eleven that will be presented this Saturday at the Visit Mallorca Estadi with respect to the one that formed before the ‘citizen’.
Thus, the Portuguese is emerging as a starter in the attack line together with the Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, with the Uruguayan waiting for his opportunity from the bench. The only doubt resides in the state of Montenegrin Stefan Savic; his discomfort in his foot could displace the Croatian Sime Vrsaljko to the center of defense and delay the position of Marcos Llorente to the right wing.
Without the sanctioned Ángel Correa nor the injured José María Giménez and Héctor Herrera and with the return of Koke Resurrección after serving a sanction, the other question to be resolved will be whether the Brazilian Renan Lodi or the Belgian Yannick Carrasco occupy the left side.
Opposite, Mallorca (26), third least scoring team (26) and third most goals scored (50) in the category, clings to any hope to try to leave the burning zone, to which it has fallen after linking seven defeats in a row in domestic competition.
A mission entrusted to Javier Aguirre; He debuted as a vermilion coach with a defeat in Getafe (1-0) and now that he debuts before the fans he is two units away from salvation. “Aguirre’s system is to win as it is, there is no more. You have to win points as it is to stay in the category. We are all one because we have eight lives left and we cannot waste any,” said the Mexican coach, who took the replacement on the Balearic bench of Luis García Plaza.
Now, the ‘Vasco’, in charge of the rojiblancos between 2006 and 2009, will seek to repeat the victory achieved by his team in the first round at the Wanda Metropolitano (1-2), with goals from Japanese Take Kubo and Franco Russo.
The Argentine, however, will be one of the absentees after being sent off at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, and will miss the match along with the injured Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta, Salva Sevilla, Dominik Greif and Aleksandar Sedlar. In exchange, the team recovers Martin Valjent, Jaume Costa and Antonio Raíllo.
DATASHEET.
–POSSIBLE ALIGNMENTS.
RCD MALLORCA: Sergio Rico; Maffeo, Raíllo, Valjent, Oliván, Jaume Costa; Kubo, Baba, Dani Rodriguez; Muriqi and Angel Rodriguez.
ATLETICO DE MADRID: Oblak; Llorente, Vrsaljko, Felipe, Reinildo, Carrasco; Koke, Kondogbia, Lemar; Griezmann and Joao Felix.
–REFEREE: Martínez Munuera (C.Valenciano).
–STADIO: Visit Mallorca Estadi.
–TIME: 16.15/Movistar LaLiga.