Atletico Madrid vs Elche

Atletico Madrid will launch their home 2021/22 La Liga campaign this weekend as they entertain minnows Elche at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano.

Reigning champions Atletico Madrid painted the beginning of the new season with flying colors, recording a 2-1 home victory over Celta Vigo – their fourth identical La Liga triumph on the trot. Heading into proceedings as overwhelming favorites to maintain a winning start to the season, ‘Los Rojiblancos’ boast an unbeaten top-flight H2H record against Elche (W19, D3), having won all six such meetings with this opposition so far in the 21st century. In a true ‘Atletico Madrid’ fashion, five of those six H2H successes yielded a clean sheet, which was the case in 60% of their home La Liga victories last season. It looks like only a miracle can prevent Atletico Madrid from posting a seventh consecutive home league win here as Diego Simeone looks to start a new top-flight season with back-to-back wins for the fourth time.

On the other hand, after being held to a goalless home draw to Athletic Bilbao on Matchday 1, Elche could make history here by starting a new top-flight season with back-to-back 0-0 stalemates for the first time since 1976/77. But, there’s a good reason the odds are heavily stacked against them here, with Elche desperately looking to end a 44-year wait for a first-half goal in a top-flight away H2H. Things get worse for ‘Los Franjiverdes’ here, considering they’ve lost 76.92% of their away league matches so far in 2021 (W1, D2, L10). On the bright side, the visitors have won two of their last three La Liga fixtures (D1), as many triumphs as they managed in their previous 14 outings in the competition (D3, L9).