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Barcelona will wear their yellow and red ‘Senyera’ kit for Saturday’s big La Liga clash with Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
The Catalan giants have unveiled three new strips for the 2020-21 season so far but will wear last season’s fourth kit for the game against Diego Simeone’s side.
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Barça will play in the ‘Senyera’ kit on Saturday for #AtletiBarça.
Barcelona wore the same kit on their last trip to Atletico Madrid in La Liga in 2019 and enjoyed a good result. Lionel Messi scored a brilliant winner with four minutes of normal time remaining to send the visitors home with all three points.
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Barcelona in Need of Win
Barca head into the match in need of a win to boost their title hopes. Ronald Koeman’s side begin the weekend down in 8th place in the table. They are already 6 points behind Atletico but can halve that deficit with a victory.
The visitors have a very strong record when it comes to taking on the Rojiblancos in the Spanish top flight. Barca have not lost in their last 20 meetings against Atleti, winning 14 and drawing 6 against the Rojiblancos, according to Sport.
Indeed Atleti manager Diego Simeone has famously never managed to beat Barcelona in La Liga. Yet he has had some recent success over the Catalan giants. Simeone’s side beat Barca in the Spanish Super Cup in January, a defeat that proved to be the end for then-manager Ernesto Valverde.
Atleti Missing Some Key Players
Atletico are in good form ahead of the game. They are the only unbeaten team left in the Spanish top flight and also boast the best defensive record with just two goals conceeded.
Yet Simeone will be without some key players for the match. Striker Luis Suarez misses out on a reunion with his former team after testing positive for Covid-19 while on international duty with Uruguay.
Midfielder Lucas Torreira has also tested positive and will not feature, while Mexico midfielder Hector Herrera is sidelined through injury, as reported by Goal.
Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak is available and has told Marca how his team must play if they are to inflict a third La Liga defeat of the season on Lionel Messi and Co.
We have to play with maximum intensity. The key against Barcelona is defending well and then being even better in attack. These are the matches you always dream of playing in. I’m happy to be on the pitch and play matches like this against Barcelona. They are a great team with great players, but I think we are prepared for this challenge, we simply have to focus on doing our job, I hope that will bring us the result we are looking for.
Barca ran out 5-2 winners over Real Betis last time out but have had little time to prepare for Saturday’s match. The majority of Koeman’s squad have been away on international duty over the past two weeks and only returned to training on Thursday evening.
Messi, Miralem Pjanic, and Frenkie de Jong did not take part in Thursday’s session, with Koeman’s permission, due to their international commitments, as reported by AS. The trio will therefore only have one training session before Saturday’s big match.
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