Atletico Madrid vs Villarreal 03/10/20

03 October 2020

Atletico Madrid will be looking to extend an unbeaten run in their La Liga H2Hs with Villarreal to five (W2, D2) when the two clubs meet at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano.

After a 6-1 thumping of Granada in their opening La Liga game of the season, the hosts have returned to their low-scoring habit, playing out a dismal goalless away draw with newly-promoted Huesca last time out. Despite the midweek draw with Huesca, ‘Los Colchoneros’ enter this round unbeaten in 18 consecutive league matches, 2019/20 included (W10, D8). Furthermore, Diego Simeone’s men have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with at home this calendar year, avoiding defeat in all 12 of their competitive games held at the Wanda Metropolitano since the turn of 2020 (W9, D3). Scoring against Atletico Madrid at this venue has been a daunting prospect, considering they’ve kept a clean sheet in seven of those 12 fixtures, conceding precisely once per match in four of the other five.

As for the visitors, they have accrued two wins, a draw, and a loss from their opening four La Liga outings, three of which have seen both teams find the back of the net. A lack of concentration in the early stages has seen Villarreal register a clear majority (85.71%) of their La Liga goals conceded this term in the first half of play (6/7). That’s a sharp contrast to their firm first-half defending back in 2019/20, where only a mere 33.33% of their total away league goals conceded arrived before half-time (8/24). Defensive woes aside, the ‘Yellow Submarine’ could find it difficult to overcome Atletico’s stubborn defense, given they’ve failed to hit the net in four of their previous nine top-flight trips to Madrid, scoring precisely once per game in the remaining five.