Atletico Madrid will be looking to make it back-to-back wins at the start of their 2021-22 La Liga season when they welcome Elche to Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday evening.
Diego Simeone's side opened their season with a 2-1 victory at Celta Vigo last weekend, while Elche played out a goalless draw with Athletic Bilbao on Monday night.
Match preview
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A double from Angel Correa proved to be enough for Atletico to pick up all three points on the opening weekend of the 2021-22 La Liga campaign, with the Argentine scoring either side of a penalty from Iago Aspas to make it the perfect start to the season for the defending champions.
Atletico have spent big on Rodrigo De Paul this summer, while they have also managed to bring in Marcos Paulo and Benjamin Lecomte to boost the squad, and it would not be a surprise to see more business take place before the transfer window closes.
Simeone's team enjoyed an excellent 2020-21 league season, picking up 86 points from their 38 matches to top the pile, two points clear of second-place Real Madrid and seven clear of Barcelona in third.
Atletico will now be bidding to make it back-to-back La Liga titles, and it will be fascinating to see whether the capital giants can hold off Real Madrid and Barcelona once again, with the two biggest clubs in Spanish football having a difficult summer in terms of off-the-field matters.
The Red and Whites had the best home record in La Liga last term, picking up 48 points from their 19 matches, and they will be taking on an Elche side with the fourth-worst away record in Spain's top flight in 2020-21.
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Elche won eight, drew 12 and lost 18 of their 38 league matches last season to collect 36 points, which saw them just about survive relegation, ending the campaign in 17th, two points clear of 18th-place Huesca.
Los Franjiverdes could be in for another tough season taking everything into consideration, but they can certainly take positives from their goalless draw with Athletic on Monday night.
Only the bottom three won fewer matches than Elche (eight) last term, but the club have made some smart signings this summer, including securing Ivan Marcone, Johan Mojica and Lucas Boye on permanent deals, while Pedro Bigas, Kiko Casilla and Enzo Roco have also arrived.
Fran Escriba's side will be desperate to put three points on the board as soon as possible, but they end the month with two incredibly difficult matches, as this weekend's clash with the champions will be followed by a home fixture against Sevilla on August 28.
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Team News
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Atletico will again be without the services of Joao Felix on Sunday through injury, while Hector Herrera, Marcos Paulo and Santiago Arias remain fitness doubts for the champions.
Mario Hermoso received a straight red card against Celta so will be unavailable here, meaning that Felipe should start at the back providing that he proves his fitness.
Kieran Trippier and Luis Suarez both appeared off the bench last weekend and could now come into the starting side, while there might be a home debut for De Paul in the middle of the park.
As for Elche, Pablo Piatti and Jony Alamo remain on the sidelines through injury, but the visitors are otherwise in excellent shape heading into this contest.
A 3-5-2 formation impressed against Athletic, but Escriba might be slightly more conservative in this match, with Pere Milla potentially dropping behind Boye in the final third of the field.
It is expected to be the same set of players for a second successive match, though, meaning that the likes of Tete Morente and Guido Carrillo might have to accept spots on the bench.
Atletico Madrid possible starting lineup:
Oblak; Savic, Gimenez, Felipe; Trippier, Koke, De Paul, Llorente, Carrasco; Correa, Suarez
Elche possible starting lineup:
Casilla; Verdu, Bigas, Roco; Josan, Guti, Marcone, Mojica; Milla, Fidel; Boye
We say: Atletico Madrid 2-0 Elche
Elche's supporters will have been encouraged by their team's performance against Athletic, but they now face arguably the toughest match on their La Liga calendar. Atletico are so strong at Wanda Metropolitano, and we are expecting a routine two-goal victory for the champions this weekend.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Atletico Madrid win with a probability of 65.24%. A draw had a probability of 21.8% and a win for Elche had a probability of 12.95%.
The most likely scoreline for an Atletico Madrid win was 1-0 with a probability of 15.07%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (13.78%) and 2-1 (9.2%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.05%), while for a Elche win it was 0-1 (5.5%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 15.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Atletico Madrid in this match.
