Sunday’s heavyweight clash between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona at Civitas Metropolitano headlines Matchday 16 of the 2022-23 La Liga season.
Barcelona find themselves atop the table on 38 points, although second-place Real Madrid have the same points tally. Still, third-place Real Sociedad sit nine points behind.
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid occupy fourth place in the standings. Diego Simeone’s team sit two points inside the top four and 11 points shy of Barca.
Atletico booked their place in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey with a 2-0 win against Oviedo on Wednesday, meaning they have claimed three straight victories since the World Cup.
However, they have only managed to win one of their past four La Liga games – recording one draw and two losses in the process.
By their own high standards, Simeone’s men have endured a relatively inconsistent campaign up to now – registering eight wins, three draws and four defeats in La Liga.
Although they have avoided defeat in each of their last six home games across all competitions, they will struggle to avoid defeat when high-flying Barcelona come to town.
Indeed, Barca have only lost one of their 15 league encounters this season – picking up 12 wins and two draws along the way.
Not only do they boast the defensive record in the division (6), but they also have the second-best offensive record (34).
Xavi’s side head into Sunday’s showdown on the back of dramatic 4-3 win against Intercity in the Copa del Rey, with the lower-league club forcing the La Liga giants to extra-time.
Still, Barca will be confident of claiming all three points this weekend after winning five of their previous six league outings and keeping four clean sheets in that time.
Head-to-head: Barcelona thrashed Atletico 4-2 when the teams last met back in February 2022, with the Catalans ending a five-game winless run in this fixture.
It is also worth pointing out that Atletico have only managed to win two of their previous 24 La Liga meetings with Barcelona.
Team news: Atletico Madrid will be without the suspended Mario Hermoso on Sunday after he picked up a red card in last week’s 2-0 win against Elche.
As for Barcelona, they have two players suspended due to red cards – Jordi Alba and Robert Lewandowski.
Given that Barca have claimed 12 wins and 11 clean sheets in 15 league outings this season, all the signs point towards a shutout victory for Xavi’s side this weekend.
Forebet predicts that Barcelona will score over 1.5 goals and keep a clean sheet on their way to dispatching Atletico Madrid.
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