Atletico Madrid v Sporting de Gijon – Match Preview
As the Spanish league kicked off, different "score lines" emerged but there still is one important match left. The current Europa League winners, Atletico Madrid have to play their first match in the La Liga against Sporting de Gijon.
With Diego Forlan included in their first team squad, the Spanish side is feeling pretty comfortable to secure a win at home. Forlan has shown top form recently and was able to win the FIFA World Cup "golden ball" award which is presented to the player who performed "the best" throughout the tournament. With the likes of Simao, Aguero and Forlan, the "attack" unit of the Spanish underdogs is fit to perform.
On the other hand, La Liga didn't really start off as it should have been. With the current Spanish League champions Barcelona taking an easy 3-0 win against Racing; it was hard for the other title contenders, Real Madrid to score a goal against Mallorca while they were away from Santiago Bernabeu as well. Real Madrid’s coach Jose Mourinho, known as the special one, was expected to do wonders with his new team but they didn’t really manage to score a single goal in the first match.
Besides Real Madrid, other teams that were expected to win actually won their matches. Sevilla and Valencia got easy wins over their opponents but it was Villareal who suffered a 1-0 loss against the newly promoted Real Socidad side.
Atletico Madrid are expected to take a fine start to this season, as they suffered mighty blows in the previous ones. According to their new coach, the goalkeeper Antonio Lopez is definitely going to be the one standing between the two posts. Diego Forlan would also be playing in the starting eleven along with Kun Aguero and Raul Garcia. Perea and Reyes are also going to be part of the team along with Ujfalusi and Godin while Juardo is to play at his favorite position.
On the other hand, Sporting Gijon's number 1 Juan Pablo would most probably start for his side. Bota and Rivera are going to feature as center backs as they performed really well in the last season. David Barral would be at the right wing. He has been out of action lately, but is definitely going to perform this time round. Another player whose last season went quite was Diego Castro; the amazing midfielder is definitely going to be a part of the first team. Moreover, the Spanish underdogs are going to play Eguren and Canella also as both of them combine well with their strikers.
Cuevas is expected to feature as a first team player this time round. The Spanish side are experimenting a few players as Ayoze and Novo are going to be left on the bench tonight. Novo is out because of his injury however, Ayoze is definitely going to get substituted during the second half of the match. At present, La Liga is pretty much predictable; however, it was Real Madrid who didn’t manage to win against Mallorca and totally made an upset for their fans. Can Sporting Gijon pull off a miracle as well? Let's wait and watch.
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