One of European football’s big clashes gets underway on Saturday afternoon, and it’s one worth tuning into as Atletico host rivals Real in a big game in the Spanish capital.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of kick-off, including some key long-term stats and a good betting tip to keep you interested.
Betting Tip: Real to Win or Draw and Over 2.5 Goals
Jose Mourinho’s second spell at Real Madrid couldn’t have started much better, with six wins in seven games; the one they didn’t win was a surprising 1-0 loss at Real Betis.
A couple of weeks ago they started their Champions League campaign in style with a good 2-1 win over Inter Milan and then followed that up with two more La Liga wins – 4-1 against Rayo Vallecano at the weekend and 3-2 over Elche on Tuesday.
As for Atletico, things haven’t gone quite as well as they have for their Madrid rivals. There’s not much wrong with four wins from six, but a 3-0 defeat at Bilbao a couple of weeks ago was a worrying sign that this isn’t one of their better squads, and there’s still a bit of a hangover from the Julián Álvarez on-off transfer saga.
The Argentinian has played just three times this season in seven Atletico games and is yet to score, so they’ll need him back to his best, motivated and hungry for goals, sooner rather than later.
Despite the fact that Diego Simeone has a reputation for trying to keep his team solid at the back and looking to concede few, this has been a high-scoring fixture, with two Real wins by 3-2 and 2-1 last season countered by a 5-2 win for Atletico back in September last year.
But Atletico have won just two of their last eight against the men in white and aren’t looking at their best so far this campaign, so it could well pay to go with Real avoiding defeat in a game with at least three goals in it.
It will certainly help our cause if Kylian Mbappe has his shooting boots on, which he has so far, scoring eight goals in seven games so far this season. English playmaker Jude Bellingham has been no slouch either, with three in seven, so if those two get going, we should be just fine.
- Bet: Real to win or draw to win and Over 2.5 Goals
- Odds: 1.87 (at the time of writing)
Did You Know?
Simeone is Atlético's longest-serving manager ever, surpassing Luis Aragonés' previous record of 612 matches.
Overall: 470 wins from 800 games gives Simeone a 58.75% win rate, while his 162 defeats represent just 20.25% of his Atlético matches. His tenure began on 7 January 2012, when Atlético drew 0-0 with Málaga, and he hasn’t looked back, having also featured in almost 150 games for them as a player.
13 of the last 14 games between the two have seen goals at both ends, with the one exception being Atletico's 1-0 win in March 2025, when Englishman Conor Gallagher scored the only goal.
