Atletico Madrid vs Celta Vigo

Metropolitano Stadium forms the backdrop as Atletico Madrid and Celta Vigo meet in a tasty-looking La Liga encounter.

Atletico Madrid opened their Champions League campaign with a dramatic 2-1 home win over Porto, will all three goals coming beyond the 90th minute. However, things are not going well for ‘Los Colchoneros’ in La Liga as they’ve only won two of their opening four league matches (D1, L1), three of which featured under 2.5 total goals. Diego Simeone will hope to turn his side’s fortunes around against Celta since his men have gone unbeaten in seven of their last eight top-flight H2Hs (W4, D3). Furthermore, ‘Los Rojiblancos’ are unbeaten in ten consecutive home league meetings with Celta (W7, D3), racking up six clean sheets in that sequence. Yet following a 2-0 home defeat to Villarreal in their maiden 2022/23 La Liga home outing, Atleti could draw a blank in their first two home league matches for the first time.

On the other hand, visiting Celta Vigo have put a frustrating two-game winless La Liga start firmly behind (D1, L1) by winning their last two league fixtures ‘to nil.’ Another identical result would see ‘Los Celestes’ win three consecutive La Liga games without conceding on the bounce for only the third time in the 21st century. However, after letting in 2+ goals in eight of their nine previous top-flight visits to Atleti, that prospect looks a bit stretched. Though they’ll meet a vulnerable ‘Los Colchoneros’ side here, Eduardo Coudet’s men may find themselves out of their comfort zone after starting three of their four La Liga games this term as pre-match favourites. Moreover, going back to February, Celta have drawn a blank in five of their nine La Liga travels, netting precisely once in three of the other four.