Barcelona vs. Atletico Madrid 6/30/20 LaLiga Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Barcelona is hosting Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou in a derby match of round 33 in Spanish LaLiga.

Barcelona is going toe to toe with Real Madrid this season, and thanks to their draw against Celta Vigo this past weekend, Barcelona is now 2 points behind Real Madrid, and with only 6 games to go, 2 points is a lot. Barcelona is the best offensive team in LaLiga with 72 scored goals, while their defense has been solid with only 33 conceded goals in 32 games this season. Messi is Barcelona’s best player, top goal scorer and top assists with 21 goals and 17 assists, while Suarez added 13 goals and 8 assists. The biggest problem for Barcelona is Messi’s struggles and he hasn’t scored in any of their last three games, don’t get me wrong, he is still playing great and all, but he is struggling with scoring goals. Dembele and De Jong are still injured, while Roberto is questionable. Barcelona was playing against Celta on the road this past weekend and they had an amazing game with 68% of ball possession, 8 corner kicks, 88% of the correct passes, but only 2 shots on goal, from which Barcelona scored 2 goals. This was a match where Barcelona shouldn’t have made a wrong step, but they did, and this match ended in a 2-2 draw. Barcelona can’t afford another misstep if they want to catch up to Real Madrid, but coach Setien must improve Barcelona’s game and try not to put everything on Messi.

Atletico is in a fantastic form and they haven’t lost a game since the restart. Atletico is on a 4-game winning streak during which they scored 9 goals and conceded only 1 goal. Atletico Madrid is now in 3rd place in the standings with 58 points, far from the top two, but still in danger of losing their third place, although I don’t think it will happen because Sevilla is dropping points all over the place. Atletico isn’t the best offensive team in LaLiga, and they scored only 41 goals, although, Atletico is improving greatly on that end. Their defense, on the other hand, Atletico’s defense has been outstanding with only 23 conceded goals. In their last LaLiga game against Deportivo Alaves at home, Atletico was the dominant team with 70% of ball possession, 4 shots on goal, 3 corner kicks, and 88% of the correct passes. Both teams were testing each other defenses in the first half and we didn’t saw any goals, while in the second half, Atletico got ahead in 59th minute, and scored another goal in 73rd minute. Alaves scored a goal from a penalty kick in 93rd minute, but it wasn’t enough to turn the game around. Atletico has won this game 2-1. Vrsaljko is the only injured player for Atletico, while Hermoso is still questionable. Morata has scored 9 goals for Atletico, while Felix added 6 goals. Atletico will not catch up to Barcelona and Real Madrid, but they certainly deserve to be in third place which will take them to the Champions League next season.

Barcelona hasn’t lost any of their last 19 home games against Atletico Madrid, while their home record this season is 15-1-0. I’m a Barcelona fan, and I always hope they will win, nothing is different in this game. Barcelona is the better team offensively, and I don’t think Messi will go 4 straight games without a goal, and Barcelona can’t afford to lose any more points. I’m siding with Barcelona at home.