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Spanish League

Atletico Madrid vs. Valencia

Atletico Madrid is currently thirteenth on the league table. They have beaten on Thursday Galatasaray in Europa in a performance that impressed me so I think that they are finally starting to believe in themselves. So confidence should be sky high for this match and on Sunday they will finally be able to confirm their status of big team in this league against a very challenging against third placed Valencia. There is good news with the return of their keeper De Gea and midfielder Thiago who couldn’t play that match. Also defender Dominguez is expected to start. I´m not sure of Agüero’s participation after receiving an ugly kick on his face yesterday. But my opinion is that it’s better to have only one of both strikers on the field as it sometimes feels that they play better without a partner and that is something manager Quique Sanchez Flores sees as well because lately he has been only starting one striker per match. And striker Forlan by himself is enough to secure goals with the help of the other stars in the team such as Simao or Reyes, both will not miss this match.

Valencia on Thursday went through to the next round of Europa League against Club Brugge thanks to extra time after a spectacular performance from Belgian keeper who stopped absolutely everything during the first 90 minutes. They come into this match with a very doubtful string of away results which include a 0-0 draw against Tenerife or the 1-1 draw against Sporting. A little bit disappointing considering that they are a team that should get much better results against smaller teams. The constant threat of league top-scorer Villa is their main weapon along with the danger in the wings with Pablo Hernandez or Mata and Silva. And although they have Banega in midfield sometimes they lack something in the midfield zone that prevents them from taking control of ball possession. This will definitely be something Atletico de Madrid will look to take advantage.

Atletico de Madrid needs to win this if they want further their distance from relegation threat which is just 7 points away. It was very frustrating for them to lose their last league match against Almeria 1-0 away even though they did dominate that match all along. But with the confidence boost of Galatasaray victory I think that they will put a good performance against Valencia.

I think Atletico Madrid has more chances of getting a victory here. Atletico Madrid +0 AH @ 1. 83 looks good.

Record Date : 26/02/2010 12:08