Barcelona will be hoping to kick into gear again in La Liga on Sunday, but it won’t be easy as the league leaders face an Atletico Madrid team that has heated up ahead of the end-of-the-season run-in.
Bookmaker 10bet has the odds at 9.50 for no goals in the contest. The odds are at 3.95 for only one goal in the game and at 3.35 for two goals to be scored.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 22nd, 10:30 A.M. (EST)
Barca will be desperate for goals on Sunday after shooting blanks in three consecutive games. If they can’t find the net against Atleti either, the team would find itself on its worst scoring drought since 2008. Another weekend without a win would also slightly open the door for Real Madrid to enter the title race again.
Xavi’s men have dominated the league all season, but they are struggling to finish off the job and the pressure to lock up the title will start growing with each passing week. A positive result in a tough fixture would certainly help boost the team’s confidence.
Sunday’s match-up against Atletico is an uncomfortable one for Barcelona but at the same time also a favorable spot, at least historically. They haven’t lost at home to the Colchoneros since 2006. Atleti has battled out two draws at Camp Nou over the last three seasons, but Barcelona typically doesn’t allow them much joy in the match-up.
Can Atletico now break the awful 17-year streak with their red-hot form? They travel to Barcelona off the back of six consecutive league wins and are unbeaten in 13 outings. Coincidentally, Atletico’s last league defeat was against Barcelona on Jan. 8 when Ousmane Dembele scored the only goal of the game.
The game against Barcelona was also the last outing in which Atletico failed to score. Getting goals was a huge issue at the start of the season, but Antoine Griezmann has hit some great form and will no doubt be fully amped up to perform well on Sunday.
Griezmann had a miserable spell with Barcelona, but he’s one of the best scorers in Atletico’s history and has fully shown his capabilities in recent weeks, registering five goals and two assists in his last eight La Liga appearances. He scored both goals when Atletico beat Almeria 2-1 last week and another match-winning performance against Barcelona would definitely be very special for him.
