Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will square up this Saturday for the 232nd competitive staging of El Derbi Madrileño.
Real Madrid come into this tie in a buoyant mood after their impressive 5-2 win over Liverpool in the Champions League. They will now look to continue that outstanding form which has seen them win their last five games while scoring 20 goals.
Three consecutive clean sheets in La Liga home games (W2, D1) and no league defeat here since last March (W10, D4) will have Los Blancos fans expecting another strong performance against their city rivals. The fact they haven’t lost to Atlético at home since February 2016 (W5, D3) would also give them the belief they can win here and keep their title hopes alive.
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Atletico did not have a European engagement in midweek, having been dumped out of the Champions League and failed to qualify for the Europa League playoffs. So they come into this tie fresher than their rivals.
The visitors are on a four-match unbeaten run (W3, D1) despite only scoring once in each of those fixtures, with a 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao, described as a “huge victory” by manager Diego Simeone.
Therefore, we can expect another tight encounter, given that their last four La Liga away games (W2, D1, L1) have produced under 2.5 goals.
