Atletico Madrid vs. Espanyol 4/17/22 LaLiga Soccer Pick, Predictions, and Odds

Atletico Madrid is hosting Espanyol at Estadio Wanda Metropolitano in round 32 of the Spanish LaLiga. Atletico has gotten knocked out of the Champions League earlier this week, they are far away from the top in LaLiga, and they are not playing well at the moment. Espanyol on the other hand has been doing a good job lately, they are climbing the standings, and they will stay in the league for at least another season.

Atletico is now without a win in their last 3 games, and even though they have put up a fight, during and after the game, they couldn’t score, and honestly, they didn’t deserve to advance. There has been a lot of stuff going on in that game against City, especially after the game, and some players can expect sanctions from UEFA. In LaLiga, Atletico is now in 4^th place with 57 points, which is the same number as Betis has behind them, and 3 points less than Sevilla and Barcelona. Atletico’s biggest problem this season was their defense or the lack thereof, and they will need to fix that for next season. Correa and Suarez are the leading goalscorers for Atletico with 11 goals, while Felix has scored 8 goals. Now it’s clear Atletico will not win anything this season, and it serves them well for trying to only defend in that first leg of the Champions League.

Espanyol has lost only 1 of their last 5 games, and that has gotten them pretty far away from the relegation zone. Espanyol is now in 11^th place with 39 points, their defense has been solid so far with 42 goals, while their offense hasn’t been too bad with 36 scored goals. I would say the schedule is pretty good for Espanyol until the end of the season, but even if it was harder, Espanyol has nothing to worry about at the moment. De Tomas has scored 14 goals for Espanyol so far this season, while Darder has added 8 assists. There are few injuries in Espanyol, but they will survive without those players. Espanyol’s main goal was to secure their spot in LaLiga for another season, and I think they have accomplished that, but they need to do even better next season.

Espanyol has won only 1 game on the road so far this season, and that will not change this season. Atletico hasn’t lost any of their last 5 home games, but we will see in what mood the players will be after that Champions League game. I don’t see a lot of goals here, and I hate it, but I will take the under.