Vallecas measures Atlético’s ambition
Simeone’s men seek their fifth consecutive victory against a Rayo who wants to react
MADRID, 8 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Atlético de Madrid seeks its fifth consecutive victory this Sunday in Vallecas (9:00 p.m. / DAZN) to confirm the good feelings of recent weeks and continue the race for second position in LaLiga Santander, all against Rayo Vallecano who needs to win later seven days without doing it.
Since their elimination in the Copa del Rey, Diego Pablo Simeone’s men have scored in all the matches of the domestic championship, with seven wins and two draws in the nine days after the defeat against Real Madrid. In total, they have accumulated eleven dates without kneeling, since they lost to FC Barcelona on January 8 (0-1).
Their regularity after the World Cup in Qatar, based on the recovery of their traditional defensive strength and a greater offensive vocation, has allowed them to settle in third place and reach 54 points, just five behind the second place of the white team and with eleven days to play. “I think of Rayo Vallecano,” replied the ‘Cholo’ at a press conference when asked if they see it as viable to reach second place.
Behind, they are six points ahead of Real Sociedad, fourth, while the first of the contenders to enter the ‘Champions’, Real Betis, is ten points behind. The Verdiblanco team was precisely the latest victim (1-0) of their intractable streak, which resulted in victories against Valencia (3-0), Girona (0-1) and Sevilla (6-1), the last team capable of scoring.
Without the injured Memphis Depay and Reinildo and with the foreseeable absence of the Argentine Ángel Correa -author of the winning goal against Betis- due to the death of his mother, the good news for the rojiblanco coach is the return of Sergio Reguilón, recovered from a muscle injury in the thigh.
However, he will once again rely on his block from recent games. “Societies are generated from the best individual state of each footballer. We try to bring together the people who best interpret team play,” he acknowledged.
Thus, with Jan Oblak indisputable under the sticks, Nahuel Molina and Yannick Carrasco will once again occupy the wings in a defense with Stefan Savic, José María Giménez and Mario Hermoso in the center, while in the engine room they will form Koke, Marcos Llorente and Rodrigo de Paul, who returns to eleven after Thomas Lemar took his place against Betis. Neither was he against the Verdiblanco Memphis team, which will open the door again to the ownership of Álvaro Morata, a couple above the French Antoine Griezmann.
He will face a Rayo against whom he has not fallen for a decade, precisely in a game in which Radamel Falcao, now in the Vallecanas ranks, cut the gap for the colchoneros in the defeat in Vallecas (2-1). Since then, Simeone’s men have reaped seven victories and three draws against their neighbors.
Andoni Iraola’s men, in European positions for a large part of the first round of the championship, have accumulated seven games without knowing victory, since February 6 -against Almería-, a streak in which they have only added five points from the last 21 possible.
Despite everything, they have 37 units, seven behind the continental positions, and with three more points they would virtually ensure their permanence in the First Division, the primary objective set at the beginning of the season.
DATASHEET.
–POSSIBLE ALIGNMENTS:
VALLEYAN LIGHTNING: Dimitrievski; Balliu, Lejeune, Catena, Fran Garcia; Valentine, Comess; Isi, Trejo, Alvaro; and Camel.
ATHLETIC MADRID: Oblak; Molina, Savic, Gimenez, Hermoso, Carrasco; Llorente, Koke, DePaul; Griezmann and Morata.
–REFEREE: De Burgos Bengoetxea (C.Vasco).
–STADIUM: Vallecas.