Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona Predictions

• Atletico Madrid are unbeaten at home in La Liga for over a year
• Barcelona are unbeaten away in the league this season, winning seven and drawing six
• Barca have drawn three of their last nine in all competitions

Barca can hold the gap

Barcelona travel to the Civitas Metropolitano on Sunday intending to hold the gap to fourth-placed Atletico Madrid to six points.

A draw would not be a bad result for the Blaugrana, who are nine games unbeaten and through to the Champions League quarter-finals.

Atletico made it through to the last eight as well this week, but how much the penalty shoot-out win over Inter took out of them will be known when they face a youthful Barca side.

Xavi has had the edge over Simeone

Xavi has had the edge over Diego Simeone over the past two years, winning all four of the La Liga matches that these two sides have played since he took charge. But only one of those was in Madrid and it came by the slenderest of margins when Ronald Araujo cleared a potential equalising effort off the line late on after Atletico had outshot Barca 20-10 with more than double the amount of strikes on target.

Three of the teams’ meetings in these past two years have finished 1-0 to Barca and another close game should be anticipated. Barca have had an extra day to prepare and were not pushed into extra time by their opponents in midweek, so they could have a physical edge.

However, it is hard to oppose Sumeone’s side at home because they have not lost since that aforementioned game in January 2023. The draw seems the safest play here given Atleti have a long unbeaten run at home and Barca are undefeated on the road this saeson.