Ponferradina vs Atletico Madrid

Out-of-sorts Atletico Madrid embark on their mid-season warm-up campaign away to second-tier Ponferradina at the Estadio El Toralín.

La Liga 2 has never hit a pause button despite the ongoing World Cup in Qatar, yet things are not looking lively for Ponferradina. Despite grabbing a hard-fought 1-0 home win over Lugo on the eve of this encounter, they remain only three points clear of the drop zone. On a more positive note, that victory helped ‘La Ponfe’ overcome a woeful run of six winless matches (D2, L4) while registering back-to-back clean sheets for the first time this season. However, scoring remains a genuine problem for David Gallego’s men, as they’ve netted under 1.5 goals in each of their last 11 outings, averaging only 0.63 goals per game in that span. The hosts can at least be safe in the knowledge they’ve not lost three of their last four home fixtures (W2, D1).

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid eased past lower-league Almazan 2-0 in Copa del Rey in their final pre-World Cup fixture, alleviating some pressure on under-fire boss Diego Simeone. In addition to failing to make it out of the Champions League group stages, ‘Los Rojiblancos’ are already a whopping 13 points adrift of the La Liga title pace, having won just one of their last five league matches (D2, L2). Indeed, the abovementioned triumph over Almazan helped Atletico halt a ponderous streak of five games without winning (D2, L3), marking their first clean sheet since mid-October. The World Cup break has at least given Simeone a month to work on the training ground and figure out a way to inspire Atletico’s comeback, starting with their first-ever clash against Ponferradina.