Three days after a disappointing home game against Espanyol and one day after the announcement of the opponents in the first “league phase” of the Champions League, Atletico Madrid will play in an opening-season friendly against Athletic Club, last season’s Copa del Rey winners.
Atlético Madrid (1-2-0, 5 points) opted to rest several players against newly promoted Espanyol, including Antoine Griezmann, Marcos Llorente, Pablo Barrios, Conor Gallagher and Josema Giménez. Los Colchoneros dominated the first half of Wednesday's match, firing a total of 25 shots on goal, resulting in 2.47 expected goals over the 90 minutes.
However, Diego Simeone's hasty triple substitution at half-time (Griezmann/Barrios/Llorente replaced Julián Alvarez/Samuel Lino/Nahuel Molina) destabilised the team and Rodrigo Riquelme was disappointed after two goals were disallowed for offside amid the chaos and Espanyol returned from the capital with a 0-0 draw.
Simeone lamented his team's lack of “assertiveness” on Wednesday and hopes the situation changes on Saturday, when Atlético visit Athletic (1-1-1, 4 points) looking to claim their first win at San Mamés in almost two years. A draw or defeat would mean Atleti go into the first international break of the season with one win from four games – Los Rojiblancos' worst record after the first four games of a league season in 15 years.
“We know how difficult it is every time we play in Bilbao,” Simeone told the media on Friday. “They are very strong at home in front of their fans, they have played great games in LALIGA in recent seasons and won the Copa del Rey. It will be a challenge.”
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A stronger XI is expected to take to the field for this crucial match on Saturday night once the dust settles on Atlético's summer transfer window. The club have signed six players this month and released nine regulars since the end of last season, keeping their promise to Simeone and replacing much of the squad in a €180m spree (although this team still lacks a reliable pivot, a versatile left-back and/or a starting quality left-footed centre-back, in my opinion).
The newly formed team's skills will be tested here and next month in the reformatted 36-team Champions League, which begins on September 17. After Thursday's draw in Switzerland, Atlético learned that it will face two Red Bull teams (Leipzig at home, Salzburg away) and the French and German champions (Bayer Leverkusen at home and Paris Saint-Germain away) in the upcoming UCL season as part of an eight-game program in the league phase that runs until January.
Atlético's other opponents are Benfica (away), Lille (away), Slovan Bratislava (home) and Sparta Prague (away). It's a tense tie with some exciting opponents – if Los Rojiblancos pick up enough points to finish in the top eight they'll go straight into the round of 16, while a home-and-away knockout play-off awaits them if they finish between 9th and 24th. Simeone's men would be out of the competition altogether if they finish 25th or worse.
“It's a new format, we know the opponents and we know that we have to score points consistently,” said El Cholo. “We will approach it game by game because (in the end) the most important thing is the number of points.”
Date 31 August 2024
Location San Mamés, Bilbao, Biscay, Euskadi
Kick-off time 19:00 CEST, 18:00 BST, 13:00 ET, 10:00 PT
Available TV/Streaming ESPN+ (USA), DAZN/Movistar+ (Spain)
