Atletico Madrid vs Real Sociedad
Spanish La Liga
Date: Tuesday, 4th March 2017
Kick-off at 20:30 UK/ 21:30 CET
Venue: Estadio Vicente Calderón (Madrid).
Diego Simeone will be relying on team spirit when his team host a struggling Real Sociedad on Tuesday evening, 4th April 2017.
Both teams are in contention for European qualification spots and have equal pressure from teams behind them. Therefore, both teams are expected to look for three points. In short, the neutrals can expect a highly competitive game with some end-to-end attacking action.
Atletico Madrid
A string of improved performances put Atletico back inside top three after struggling for majority of the first-half of the season. They are third in the table with 58 points, same as Sevilla on the fourth. Meantime, their chances to challenge Barcelona and Real Madrid for a title is minimal, as there is already an 8-point gap from the top.
The 2-0 win against Malaga on Saturday stretched the Rojiblancos’ winning streak to four LaLiga games. Their last defeat was at home against Barcelona on February. But that remains their only defeat in the last 14 league games and picked up 10 wins and 3 draws during the period.
Atletico Madrid are the fifth best home team in the league, with 10 wins and 2 draws from their 14 matches so far. They average less than a goal per game in terms of goals conceded in home matches.
Real Sociedad
La Real were once against short of ideas as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by a relegation bound Leganes. They are coming into this match without a win in the last three, having lost in consecutive games at Alaves and home to Bilbao.
The recent run of results is a bitter blow to Sociedad’s Europa League qualification chances. They are sitting at 5th on the log with 49 points, but the gap with 9th placed Espanyol is a meagre 6 points.
Away from home, Eusebio Sacristan’s men have an excellent record. They lost their most recent game at Alaves by a 1-0 margin before picking up 3 consecutive wins. They are ranked fifth in the away form table with 8 wins and 6 losses from their 14 matches so far. But it is worth to notice that they were beaten just three time in the last 10 road games and picked up 10 wins during the period.
Atletico Madrid vs Real Sociedad: Head-to-head
Real Sociedad surprised Atletico Madrid with a 2-0 win when the teams met at the Anoeta earlier this season.
However, the Rojiblancos were better in the recent meetings with 5 wins from 7 matches, while losing twice.
At the Vicente Calderon, Madrid are victorious in the last three games against Sociedad, with clean sheets and scoring a minimum of 2 goals each. Sociedad tasted victory just once in their last 10 visits here, which was in 2013. While Atletico won 7 and drew 2 during the period. The number of clean sheets they kept during the period is 7.
Atletico Madrid vs Real Sociedad: Prediction
Real Sociedad are slowly losing ground in keeping up with other teams in the race for a Europe League spot. While Atletico Madrid make a considerable leap to Champions League spot with an emphatic run of results since the start of the New Year.
Not many teams returned from Vicente Calderon with points this season and Tuesday won’t be different. A home win is evitable and we believe backing Atletico to win is a better pick considering Sociedad’s poor scoring record at this venue.
Also, keep an eye on the Diego Simeone’s starting line-up. Antoine Griezmann found the back of the net in 4 of the last 5 games. He can be backed to score any-time during this fixture.
Atletico Madrid vs Real Sociedad: Bet Tips
Atletico Madrid to win to nil at 2.10
Under 2.5 goals at 1.93
