Two of Spain’s biggest clubs will meet on Saturday afternoon, in what promises to be a very intriguing affair. Atletico Madrid make the trip to Valencia having not played in three weeks, with their previous match against Sevilla called off due to extreme weather.
Atletico are in a good place in terms of form, but less so in regards to squad issues. They have no less than five players out for this match, including key midfield duo Koke Resurreccion and Rodrigo De Paul.
Marca believe that it will be Pablo Barrios to continue as the holding midfielder, while Marcos Llorente and Thomas Lemar will start either side of the Spain U21 international.
With Yannick Carrasco having left the club to join Al-Shabab, head coach Diego Simeone has been mulling over who to replace the Belgian international with. In the end, he has opted for Rodrigo Riquelme, despite Javi Galan and Samuel Lino being more natural options.
Valencia are hoping to bounce back from back-to-back defeats when they take on Atletico. Head coach Ruben Baraja is preparing to make changes as a result, with Cristhian Mosquera and Sergi Canos set to start. Interestingly, new signing Roman Yaremchuk is set to be on the bench, with Hugo Duro continuing at striker.
Valencia will be determined to return to form when they take on Atletico Madrid on Saturday afternoon, although it will be far from difficult, even despite the away side’s ever-growing injury problems.