Barcelona and Atletico Madrid will meet in the Spanish league (La Liga) on Saturday after both facing setbacks during the international break. Atletico, which have a chance to open a nine-point lead over their Catalan rival, will be without forward Luis Suarez. (More Football News)
Suarez would have been facing his old club for the first time but he tested positive for the coronavirus while on duty with Uruguay's national team. A second test on Wednesday was also positive, forcing him to remain in isolation. Newly signed Atletico midfielder Lucas Torreira also tested positive while with the Uruguayan national team and won't be available either.
Suarez Hype
There had been a lot of hype surrounding Suarez's meeting with Barcelona, which let the striker go in the offseason after coach Ronald Koeman arrived to revamp the squad. It's not all negative for Atletico, however. Some of the team's players did well with their national teams over the break, Jorge “Koke” Resurreccion, Renan Lodi and Joao Felix among them. Koke helped Spain rout Germany 6-0, while Lodi played in Brazil's 2-0 win over Uruguay and
Félix scored a goal in Portugal's 3-2 victory over Croatia.
“We are going to arrive for this match very motivated,” Felix said. “We all know Barcelona, they like to keep possession and they will make us run more than usual. But if we play our game, we will have a great match. These are the matches that we like to play, against good teams, against great players.”
Messi Mess
Barcelona, meanwhile, will be without Sergio Busquets, who was injured while playing with
Spain's national team. They also had several players out on international duty, including Lionel Messi with Argentina. Messi returned to Spain on Wednesday and vented after being asked about the criticism directed at him by a former agent of teammate Antoine Griezmann.
“To be honest, I'm a bit tired of always being the problem for everything in this club,” Messi said.
He also complained about having to undergo an inspection by Spanish tax officials on the plane upon his arrival.
With that, here's all you need to know about the match:
Date: November 22 (Sunday), 2020
Time: 1:30 AM IST
Venue: Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid, Spain
TV Listing: No telecast in India
Live Streaming: La Liga Facebook page, Bet365 (registration required)
In Spain, the match can be watched on - Movistar Laliga 1, Movistar Laliga, Movistar+, Partidazo in Movistar LaLiga, Mitele Plus.
In United States - beIN SPORTS en Espanol, beIN SPORTS, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, Fanatiz USA
In UK - LaLigaTV, Premier Player HD
Likely XIs
Atletico Madrid: Oblak; Gimenez, Godin, Savic, Hernandez; Koke, Saul, Gabi; Carrasco, Griezmann, Correa.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Umtiti, Pique, Alba; Busquets, Rakitic, Paulinho; Deulofeu, Suarez, Messi.
Head-to-head
Atletico have not beaten Barcelona in La Liga for a decade. In the last meeting, they played out a 2-2 draw. Before that Atleti beat Barca 3-2 in Super Cup.
Standings And Other Fixtures
Real Sociedad leads the league with 20 points, three more than third-place Atletico and nine more than eighth-place Barcelona. Both Atletico and Barcelona have two games in hand, however. Real Sociedad visits sixth-place Cadiz on Sunday, while second-place Villarreal, two points off the lead, hosts Real Madrid on Saturday.
Madrid is in fourth place with 16 points and has one game in hand. The defending champions also got some bad news during the international break when captain Sergio Ramos injured his right leg in Spain's rout of Germany in the Nations League on Tuesday. Madrid's other central defender, Raphael Varane, was injured while playing for France.
In other matches this weekend, Sevilla hosts struggling Celta Vigo on Saturday, and Valencia visits Alaves on Sunday.
(With agency inputs)
