Atletico no longer inferior to Real Madrid – Simeone

The European champions lifted the Champions League trophy back in May and are now on top of the La Liga table, two points above second-placed Barcelona with both teams having played 11 games apiece.

What should concern Zinedine Zidane more than this, though, is that they’re heading into the raucous atmosphere of the Calderón – where Atleti are 22 games unbeaten – against a side that have vastly improved their attack. He’s feeling better and I hope he plays well. Although they had a shocking draw away to Legia Warsaw in Champions League, they quickly bounced back by giving another Madrid outfits Leganes a 3-0 trashing.

Atletico have gone 22 games in a row without a defeat at Calderon in La Liga, (W18 D4) – their last defeat at Calderon was on September 2015 (1-2 against Barcelona). “We began very well, strong”.

With Alvaro Morata missing through injury sustained on global duty, the return of Karim Benzema after two weeks out is an important boost for Zinedine Zidane. “We want to play, we know how hard the game will be because we’re up against a very good opponent but we’re not going to change”.

Zinedine Zidane: “An easy game doesn’t exist and you saw that the first half [against Leganes] was hard for us”.

“I don’t believe there is any possibility of Griezmann going to Madrid, or to any other team”, he told Onda Cero. “Few teams are capable of coming here and winning 3-0”. “We put the necessary intensity against a hard opponent who always complicates the task on his ground”.

Despite Malaga finishing the match with nine men, Barcelona was unable to make the breakthrough and now finds itself four points behind Real at the top of the table.

“The first 20 minutes of the second half we were not fragile”, he said.

He then stuck the knife into Atletico by turning in Gareth Bale’s low cross to complete his treble.

“We can not lose further ground if we are to compete for the title but it’s clear that we need to improve to win as we were doing before”, Atletico captain Gabi told Marca. “In Milan, we didn’t have to go to penalties. but football is like this”. They didn’t change the system much, but they played and pressed well.

Real have not beaten Diego Simeone’s side in the league since 2013 and can expect an even more hostile atmosphere than usual in the final derby at the Vicente Calderon stadium before it is demolished.