A Tactical Game At Vicente Claderon – Atletico Madrid vs. Villarreal Game Preview

Atletico Madrid and Diego Simeone have to win this match because they are just three points ahead of Sevilla, and they want to secure the third spot in the Spanish national championship which leads directly to the group stage of the Champions League.

On the other hand, Villarreal is fighting for the Europa League, and they are in an extremely tough situation. The Yellow Submarine is currently holding the 5th place, with one point more Athletic Bilbao and two points more than Real Sociedad in the 7th place. If they fell two places down, they will lose European competitions next season.

This situation guarantees tough and tactical football tonight because a lot is at stake for this two teams.

Atletico Madrid is in a perfect form as they haven't lost in the last 12 matches. Diego Simeone perfectly targeted their form for the last part of the season.

The last loss at home came in February this year against Barcelona, and since then they have four straight victories, and in three of them, they have kept the clean sheet.

In those games, the hosts were fantastic, and on three occasions they scored three goals exactly, demolishing their opponents.

Villarreal is playing similar like Atletico Madrid, and we can say that in some parts of the game they are even better.

As you can see, their style is based on tough and efficient defense, the same as their opponent and when looking away matches, Villarreal conceded fewer goals than Atletico Madrid. In 16 games played on the road this season, they have 4 defeats and six victories and draws a piece, with only 10 conceded goals. Coach Francisco Escriba managed to put all the pieces together and form incredibly strong squad.

In the last several head-to-head matches Villarreal has more success. In the last three games, they haven't conceded a goal against Atletico Madrid, and that is the one curiosity that we don't often see when Diego Simeone's team play.

During that run, Villarreal put down two victories and one draw.

Apart from the last match in which we saw three goals, 6 previous were under 2.5 goals and in 5 out of the last 7 games we had one or no goals.

Considering tonight's game, we are sure that the tradition is going to be preserved.

No more than two goals are going to be seen, especially since Atletico reached their form and tightened up their defense.

Expect a lot of tactics, fouls in the midfield part of the pitch, yellow cards, and high intensity.

We think that the home team is going to win.

They are just too experienced to lose such an important match in this part of the season. Also, try home team wins with under 2.5 goals.