Atlético seeks to consolidate its podium in the impregnable Montilivi
Simeone’s men will try to consolidate in third place against a Girona that wants to keep relegation away
MADRID, March 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Atlético de Madrid seeks this Monday in Montilivi (9:00 p.m. / DAZN), in the last game of the twenty-fifth day of LaLiga Santander, a victory that will consolidate it in third position in the table against a Girona that it has never achieved win on their home ground, a territory where only one team has won since the World Cup.
Already out of Europe and the Copa del Rey, Diego Pablo Simeone’s men are clear that the objective of the season is to finish in ‘Champions’ positions. Last week, with their overwhelming victory against Sevilla (6-1), they returned to the ‘podium’ of the classification (45).
Real Sociedad’s tie (45) on Sunday in Mallorca allowed the rojiblancos, perhaps at their best moment of the season, to stay in third place, which they now want to consolidate with their second consecutive win and their ninth straight matchday scoring -five wins and three draws.
Gone are the doubts that threatened, before the World Cup, to end the reign of ‘Cholo’, who just a few days ago reached 613 games as mattress coach, more than any other coach in the club’s history.
“The team is excited, both those who enter from the beginning and those who have to wait to enter. They are doing well, it has always been one of our tools to be able to compete at the highest level. Hopefully we can sustain it from here to final”, said the Argentine coach at a press conference.
Much of this good dynamic lies in his increasingly offensive vocation, which has found one of its best faces with the duo formed by Antoine Griezmann and Memphis Depay. The Frenchman, leader of the rojiblancos, has scored eight goals so far in the championship, just one less than Álvaro Morata, who is aiming for his fourth consecutive substitution.
The Dutchman, for his part, has waited patiently for his moment and has fitted perfectly into Simeone’s scheme, scoring three goals in his last three games. The return of Argentine Ángel Correa after serving a suspension does not seem to threaten the ownership of Memphis either.
With Stefan Savic, José María Giménez and Mario Hermoso as center-backs and Nahuel Molina and Yannick Carrasco on the wings, Rodrigo de Paul’s recovery will not change anything in midfield either, a preserve for Koke, Marcos Llorente and Thomas Lemar.
Now, the mattress team will visit a field where they have never managed to win -three draws- and where the leader FC Barcelona, at the end of January (0-1), was the only team capable of taking the three points after the resumption of the championship after the world Cup.
Míchel’s men interrupted a series of two consecutive victories in Getafe (3-2) and are now twelfth with 30 points, seven away from the continental places and four above the relegation zone, a ghost that they will try to banish at home, where in the heat of their people they have won three of their last four games.
Their good offensive work, a facet in which they have scored as many goals (38) as Atlético and in which they are only surpassed by Real Madrid and Barça, contrasts with their fragility at the back, where they have conceded another 38 goals. Ibrahima Kébé, Yan Couto, Yangel Herrera and Alexander Callens will miss the event due to injury.
DATA SHEET.
–POSSIBLE ALIGNMENTS:
GIRONA: Gazzaniga; Arnau, Good, David Lopez, Miguel; Romeu, Borja Garcia, Aleix Garcia; Tsygankov, Riquelme and Castellanos.
ATHLETIC MADRID: Oblak; Molina, Savic, Gimenez, Hermoso, Carrasco; Koke, Llorente, Lemar; Griezmann and Memphis.
–REFEREE: Melero López (C.Andaluz).
–STADIUM: Montilivi.