The Atletico Madrid receives this Sunday Espanyol at the Metropolitano on matchday 32 of the league championship. A vital meeting in the fight of the rojiblanco team to finish among the top four classified in LaLiga to play the next edition of the Champions League, which is right now the only objective that remains for this season.
To do this, he must defeat the ‘parrot’ team, which lives placidly in the middle of the table. And to achieve victory, the mattress team will have to put an end to two streaks that are related. One, obviously, is the three games without a win. The other has to do with something necessary to achieve it, to score a goal.
Because Atlético has not scored a goal in the last three commitments they have had, that is, he has not won. He did not see a door in the Etihad, nor in Mallorca four days later and more of the same in the second leg against Manchester City in the Metropolitan. The result: elimination from the Champions League and step back in the regular tournament after six consecutive wins.
The first two games, in which Atlético barely shot on goal, have little to do with the third, in which they did have chances to score, especially in a second half in which the rojiblancos beat the English, that they were against the ropes and that they even had to resort to hitting the ball and losing time to survive in the Metropolitan.
It is the first time in the course that Atlético has chained three games without scoring. He only played two games, at the beginning of the campaign, with goalless draws against Athletic and Porto, both at home. As for the streak of results, it is not the worst, as he suffered three defeats in a row at the end of 2021 (Real Madrid, Seville and Granada), but he has never gone four times without winning, something that could happen on Sunday.
Atlético must change the chip and recover from the European blow to rediscover victory, on a special day, as Children’s Day is celebrated at the Metropolitano.
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