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The story of the season so far has been the resurgence of Barcelona, with a team that looked like it had lost a step last season starting off this campaign with a humiliating Spanish Super Cup loss and then launching themselves to an utterly dominant start to their competitive season, winning every game they’ve played. Now they have to visit Atlético Madrid to keep that run going, and that might not be so easy.
Atlético are still breaking in their new home of the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano, and this is the biggest match they’ve hosted to date. We all know that Diego Simeone has what it takes to figure out a gameplan to rise to the occasion and take Barcelona down, but his side has been a bit listless of late, with a scoreless draw against Leganes in their last match following a painful late loss to Chelsea in the Champions League.
If Atlético are going to beat a Barcelona side that’s been this good to start the season, or even be a serious threat to be the first side to take points off them, they’ll need to dig deep and find that fire that has made them so good over the last few years. Without that fire, without that fight, it’s going to be tough for Madrid to hang with Barcelona in this kind of form.
Barcelona still have the same two injury absences they’ll be dealing with for some time yet — Ousmane Dembele and Rafinha — but they’re healthy otherwise. Atlético Madrid have a trio of injuries to deal with, with Luis Hernandez, Filipe Luis, and Augusto Fernandez all out, and those are all in somewhat difficult spots for their depth to deal with right now.
Match info, plus how to watch on TV and stream
Match date/time: Saturday, 2:45 p.m. ET, 8:45 p.m. local
Venue: Estadio Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain
TV: beIN Sports (U.S. - English), beIN Sports en Español (U.S. - Spanish) Movistar Partidazo, Movistar+ (Spain)
Online: beIN Sports Connect (U.S.)
Make friends: Check out Barca Blaugranes for more Barcelona coverage.
Listings for more countries can be found at LiveSoccerTV.