Atletico Madrid vs Slovan Bratislava Preview: Team News & Prediction

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Atletico Madrid have been on a ridiculous run recently and that continued at the weekend with a dramatic victory against Sevilla as they now face a weak Slovan Bratislava side in Madrid.

Kick-off date/time: Wednesday 11th December, 2024: UK – 5:45pm / US ET – 12:45pm / US PT – 9:45am

How to watch on TV: UK – TNT Sports / US – Not televised

How to watch online: UK – Discovery+ / US – Paramount+

Atletico Madrid Preview: Surprisingly entertaining

Despite perhaps coming under more pressure than he ever has as Atletico Madrid boss, Diego Simeone’s Los Rojiblancos have propelled themselves back into La Liga’s title race and into contention in the UEFA Champions League after an excellent recent run of form.

They came from 3-1 down to defeat Sevilla in last-gasp style at the Metropolitano at the weekend a few days after a late turnaround against lower league Cacereno. Those victories mean they have now won their last nine games and scored 18 in their last four matches.

Slovan Bratislava Preview: Struggles in Europe

Slovan Bratislava come into this one on the back of a 2-1 defeat to MSK Zilina in the Slovak Super Liga at the weekend. The Slovakian champions do remain at the top-of-the-table domestically but they have badly struggled in the UEFA Champions League this season.

The visitors are languishing down in 35th of the 36-team table with five wins out of five so far this season, scoring four goals and conceding the most in the competition, 18. They were narrowly beaten 3-2 by AC Milan in the Slovakian capital a couple of weeks ago.

Atletico Madrid Team News: Rotating Atleti

The hosts have been heavily rotating in every game but there is a cohesion and spirit at the moment that Atletico are either playing well or finding a way regardless of who is on the pitch. France international Thomas Lemar remains sidelined for this week.

Predicted XI (4-4-2): Oblak; Llorente, Gimenez, Lenglet, Galan; Simeone, De Paul, Barrios, Gallagher; Sorloth, Alvarez

Unavailable: Lemar (Injured)

Questionable:

Slovan Bratislava Team News: Tolic suspension

There are no fresh injury concerns for Slovan Bratislava this week so they will be able to name an unchanged eleven from their game against AC Milan the other week. They will be without substitute Marko Tolic because he was sent off late on in that game.

Predicted XI (3-4-3): Takac; Bajric, Kashia, Voet; Blackman, Kucka, Savvidis, Medvedev; Barseghyan, Strelec, Metsoko

Unavailable: Tolic (Suspended)

Questionable:

Key Stats

This is the first UEFA club competition meeting between these two teams.
Atlético have lost only two of their last 11 UEFA Champions League group/league matches (W7 D2).
Atlético have won six of their last eight UEFA Champions League group/league matches (L2).
Atlético have scored two or more goals in 11 of their last 14 UEFA competition matches.
Ángel Correa has scored three goals in his last two UEFA Champions League appearances. He scored three goals in his 73 appearances in the competition proper prior to that.
Slovan Bratislava’s only success in their previous eight UEFA competition matches against Spanish teams is their 3-2 victory against Barcelona in the 1969 Cup Winners’ Cup final. They are without a win in the seven matches since then (D2 L5).
Slovan Bratislava have lost their previous five matches in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League this season.
Slovan Bratislava have drawn two and lost two of their previous four UEFA club competition matches against Spanish teams in Spain.
Only one of Slovan Bratislava’s last 36 UEFA club competition matches finished without a goal being scored.

Atletico Madrid vs Slovan Bratislava Prediction

One of the major criticisms of Diego Simeone would be that Atletico Madrid haven’t evolved their style enough to go alongside the evolution of personnel within their squad. However, that has not been the case in the last few weeks and they should be quite dominant once again, if they can avoid a complacency that they can often be guilty of. Slovan Bratislava can be quite open and entertaining themselves, too, so it actually may be quite fun for the neutral to watch at the Metropolitano this week.

Atletico Madrid vs Slovan Bratislava Tip: Atletico Madrid to win & over 2.5 goals