Atletico Madrid are catching Real Madrid at the right time, it seems. Los Blancos just suffered a loss to the sixth place team in La Liga, yesterday, and they now find themselves beneath their Capital City derby rivals in the table.
Also, Atletico got to this point, in the UEFA Champions League competition, without having to overcome that extra step that Real did.
El Derbi Madrileño FYIs
Competition: UEFA Champions League Round of 16, Leg 1/2
Kickoff: Tue. March 4, 8pm, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain
Team News for Both Sides: go here
Google’s Result Probability: Real 51% Draw 26% Atletico Madrid 23%
So this special continental competition edition of the Capital City derby is basically anybody’s ballgame. So with that in mind, let’s get to the starting lineup predictions.
Starting XI Predictions
Real Madrid
Thibaut Courtois; Federico Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga, Raul Ascensio, Ferland Mendy; Luka Modric, Aurelian Tchouameni; Rodrygo, Brahim Diaz; Vinicius Jr., Kylian Mbappe
Atletico Madrid
Jan Oblak; Nahuel Molina, Robin Le Normand, Jose Maria Gimenez, Javi Galan; Marcos Llorente, Rodrigo De Paul, Pablo Barrios, Samuel Lino; Julian Alvarez, Antoine Griezmann
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.