FC Barcelona vs. Atlético Madrid: Preview, predicted lineup

Atlético Madrid welcome in the month of December with a run of three tough games away from home in the space of a week. The first of those: a trip to the newly-refurbished Camp Nou to take on FC Barcelona on Tuesday night.

This midweek fixture comes as part of a re-arranged matchday for those competing in the Spanish Super Cup in January. The other teams involved, Athletic Club and Real Madrid, will face off on Wednesday evening in the Basque Country.

It’s a timely moment for these heavyweight matches to appear in the calendar, as the top of the LALIGA table has become extremely condensed since last weekend. A win for Atleti (9-4-1, 31 points) would see them rise from fourth place and go level on points with current league leaders Barça (11-1-2, 34 points). Second place Real Madrid (10-3-1, 33 points) will be hoping to capitalise on a Barcelona slip-up, whilst Villarreal (10-2-2, 32 points) will hope to cling onto third position with a game in hand until January.

It was this fixture of course that sent Atlético top of the league right before Christmas last season, as part of a remarkable club-record 15-match winning streak. A current run of seven straight wins in a pre-festive period offers some parallels between the two matches, and rojiblancos around the world will be hoping for a repeat result this year.

The hero that night was Alexander Sørloth, who bagged a last-gasp goal to seal the 2-1 victory, and the Norwegian seems to have timed his form perfectly leading up to this one. He netted twice in Atleti’s 2-0 win over Real Oviedo at the weekend, and will look forward to playing a team against which he has scored five goals in six LALIGA appearances. It’s likely his involvement will again come from the bench on Tuesday night, as it did last December.

With the return of Barcelona’s best front three, eyes will turn once more towards the battles on the flanks — a key area in all four of Atleti and Barça’s encounters last season. Ultimately, the gulf in class between Lamine Yamal and Javi Galán proved to be our downfall; the youngster continuously terrorised the poor left-back.

This time around, it looks to be Dávid Hancko — the man brought in specifically to increase the team’s quality in that position — who will take on the responsibility of keeping the teen quiet. It will be a real test of his mettle, regardless of Lamine’s injury-hit campaign to date, which has seen his form fall short of the genius of which we know he’s capable.

On the other side of the pitch, Marcos Llorente looks unlikely to arrive fit to play, giving Diego Simeone a toss-up between Marc Pubill and Nahuel Molina. Whoever is selected, they’ll have the job of dealing with Raphinha, who came back into Hansi Flick’s side recently. The Brazilian’s influence on his team has been stark, already contributing in the attacking phase, as well as a punch of motivation that certain Blaugrana players have been lacking.

Completing the Catalan attacking trident is Robert Lewandowski, who also has had his injury concerns recently. The 37-year-old will be coming up against Atleti for the 13th time, having scored five times previously, including in his time playing for Bayern Munich.

Barcelona will be without defender Ronald Araujo, who has asked his club for an “undetermined period of time to mentally recover.” His agents met with the Barça board on Monday morning, and the Uruguayan did not train with his teammates. He was recently sent off in a 3-0 Champions League loss against Chelsea.

Team news

El Cholo played his cards exactly as he should have by resting numerous key players for the game against Oviedo at the weekend, while still giving them some minutes to at least keep them ticking over. It’s expected Julián Alvarez will return to the starting 11, as well as Pablo Barrios, Giuliano Simeone and José María Giménez, who all came off the bench against the Asturians.

It will be another test of La Araña’s partnership with Álex Baena, which at this current moment, doesn’t seem to delivering to the expectations we perhaps had in August. Alvarez has struggled away from home this season, netting only once, but managed to score away to Barcelona last season — albeit at Montjuïc, not the Camp Nou.

Baena played an excellent first half at the weekend before he was subbed off to keep him fresh for this one, but did so without Alvarez on the pitch. The two are similar in the way they like to dictate the play from deep. Expect Sørloth or Antoine Griezmann to come on early in the second half should the plan look to be faltering.

Pubill was tested on Monday ahead of Molina to take Llorente’s spot, continuing his growing impact in a red and white shirt. With Robin Le Normand still out, Clément Lenglet is expected to partner Giménez in the heart of defence. It seems Simeone prefers the Frenchman to putting Matteo Ruggeri at left-back and pulling Hancko into the middle.

Nico Gonzalez is becoming something of a cult hero just a few months into his Atleti career, and he should keep his place on the left of midfield. The Argentine feels like exactly who you want on the pitch in these big matches; he has brought his tireless intensity to every appearance he has made so far.

Remarkably, the one player not seeming to get any rest is captain Koke, who played 74 minutes against Oviedo and is likely to start on Tuesday night. The Spaniard is keeping Johnny Cardoso (still recovering to 100 percent after his injury) out of the team, when we thought he’d play a more backseat role to wind down his twilight years at the Metropolitano. Apparently not!

Predicted lineup

Oblak; Pubill, Giménez, Lenglet, Hancko; Giuliano, Koke, Barrios, Nico; Baena, Julián.