Heated Madrid derby coming up
Its Atletico's second Madrid derby in a row when they visit Leganes in the outskirts of the city. Atletico Madrid have never won at the Butarque when playing in the highest division and Leganes want to keep it that way, but how will it end?
Leganes
Los Pepineros kicked of their season with a 0-1 defeat at home to new-comers Osasuna which is a far cry from what was expected from fans and basically everyone to be honest.
The men in white and blue will be very disappointed with their defeat due to the fact that they take immense pride in that they are very hard to beat on their home soil. So hard to beat in fact that none of last seasons top 6 won a game away to Leganes.
Atletico are notorious for being a low-scoring team, especially on the road which will suit Leganes just fine as they like to sit back, soak up the pressure and hit their opponents on the counter.
One of their biggest strengths, especially against the good teams, is disrupting the play and ruining other teams flow, in other words, they like to play physically.
Estadio Municipal de Butarque might be La Liga's smallest arena but their passionate fans (over 90% attendance rate over whole season) turn games into heated affairs, an aspect that really turns the Butarque into a fortress against the top teams.
Atletico Madrid
The red and whites spent an immense amount of money on transfers this summer bringing in wonder boy Joao Felix, Marcos Llorente, Hector Herrera, Mario Hermoso, Kieran Trippier, Felipe and Renan Lodi with the former 4 all being defenders. However, they did make an immense amount from selling quite a few players including talisman Griezmann, centre-back Lucas Hernandes and Defensive stalwart Rodri.
Diego Simeone's men are unbeaten in their last 7 and have won 6 of those, all but one might be preseason friendlies but do not let that fool you, Atleti have been absolutely tearing it up. Joao Felix has, despite his young age, been a revelation and can, when given some time, turn into what Griezmann was before his departure to Barcelona.
What i think will be one of the most interesting things to see is how Atleti's defence copes without the likes of long-serving favourites Juanfran, Filipe Luis and General Diego Godin over the course of the season. They have purchased wisely during the transfer window but one does not simply replace a player of Godin's magnitude and not feel any repercussions, especially when he had such an important, leading role.
All in all, this is one of the seasons harder away games and Atletico are experts at avoiding defeat but this is after all a derby and most of us know that anything can happen in a derby.
Betting tip
Due to both teams defensive tendencies i will simply be backing Under 2.5 goals at 1/2 with Bethard.
