Atletico Madrid vs Real Valladolid 27/04/19

27 April 2019

Saturday’s La Liga round of fixtures sees second-placed Atletico Madrid and the relegation fighters Real Valladolid going head-to-head at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano.

Sitting nine points adrift of La Liga toppers Barcelona, with four league matches left to go, the hosts have minimal chances of overthrowing the reigning holders. Nonetheless, Los Colchoners go into this meeting after racking up a three-game LL winning run during which they’ve scored six goals and kept two clean sheets. Having established themselves as LL’s most challenging hosts (W14, D2, L1), Los Rojiblancos have won all five of their previous LL home outings, beating their rivals to nil four times across those clashes. Also, no team has shipped fewer goals at home than Atletico Madrid (9) this season, with Diego Simeone’s men preserving 12 clean sheets in 17 LL home games.

Meanwhile, although they’ve secured a narrow 1-0 win over relegation rivals Girona last time out; the visitors are still frantically looking over their shoulders, as they sit just one point clear of 18th-placed Girona. Not quite comfortable away from home, the returnees have lost five of eight league road clashes in 2019 (W1, D2, L5), failing to keep a clean sheet across all of those games. Pucelanos’ main problem ahead of this trip could be their struggling for away goals considering Sergio González’s players have failed to find the net in eight of 17 LL away fixtures, averaging 0.82 goals scored per match on the road. What’s more, Blanquivioletas have yet to score a goal against LL’s top-five sides away from home, securing just one point in four road H2Hs with the Spanish top-placed clubs (D1, L3).