Atletico Madrid vs Villarreal preview

December 13, 2014
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Atletico vs VillarrealLa Liga holders Atletico Madrid will be searching for their fourth successive league triumph when they host Villarreal on Sunday, but they are unlikely to have an easy job.

The Yellow Submarine, too, have won their last three fixtures and they hope to further close the gap behind their top 4 rivals.

Even if Diego Simeone had kept the entire team together, Atletico would have problems repeating the success from last season, and no doubt numerous changes to the playing squad made his job a lot harder.

In all fairness, los Colchoneros needed a while to hit the ground running, but we can safely say they are back to their best.

Atletico eased off to the first place in what was a difficult Champions League group, while they remain serious contenders for the La Liga trophy.

Los Colchoneros have seriously raised their performances of late, recording comfortable wins over Malaga, Deportivo and Elche, and they are 1.67 (2/3) to extend the winning run against Villarreal.

Diego Simeone is expected to make some changes to the team that faced Juventus in midweek, with Tiago and Antoine Griezmann pushing for starting places.

Key defender Joao Miranda is ready to return from injury, while Alessio Cerci is doubtful and Cristian Ansaldi is definitely out.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Moya – Juanfran, Miranda, Godin, Siqueira – Turan, Gabi, Tiago, Koke – Mandzukic, Griezmann.

Villarreal have been on a constant uptrend ever since they returned to the elite division and the club appear ready to mount another serious top 4 challenge.

The Yellow Submarine have done really well to balance between their league and European campaigns, having secured their progress into Europa League knockout stages with relative ease.

Meanwhile, Marcelino Garcia Toral’s charges have been raising their form in La Liga and have now climbed to sixth position in the overall standings.

Successive wins over Getafe, Cordoba and Real Sociedad ensure Villarreal go into the Atletico clash high on confidence, so both teams to score bet needs to be considered at 2.05 (21/20).

Coach Marcelino faces a genuine selection headache with Cani, Mateo Musacchio, Giovani Dos Santos, Bojan Jokic and Hernan Perez all out injured.

On top of that, the likes of Luciano Vietto, Gerard Moreno and Moi Gomez appear to have picked up a stomach bug and they are rated doubtful.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Asenjo – Mario, Gabriel, Ruiz, Costa – J. Dos Santos, Trigueros, Bruno, Cheryshev – Uche, Vietto.

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