(Football news) After two wins in a row against Valencia and Viktoria Plzen, Barcelona will host newly promoted Almeria. The game will be the farewell game of club legend Gerard Pique who announced his retirement earlier this year. A victory would be a perfect way to say goodbye to Pique and Barcelona need a win as it will take them to 2 points clear of Real Madrid at least for a couple of days which will be a psychological boost. Franck Kessie is out after suffering an injury against Plzen while Sergi Roberto, Ronald Araujo and Eric Garcia are still nowhere near full fitness. However Andreas Christensen and Memphis Depay could return to the squad.
Barcelona, despite facing embarrassment in the UCL, are doing really well in La Liga as they have lost 1 and drawn 1 game so far this season. Robert Lewandowski is in incredible goalscoring form and he has already racked up 13 La Liga goals, 5 more than any other player. Atletico Madrid on the other hand are well and truly struggling. They need to get some sort of consistency and the Rojiblancos have a chance on Sunday as they take on Espanyol at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Diego Simeone desperately needs to get hold of this squad and sort things out. Usually in football players performances get the manager sacked but it wouldn't be wrong in saying that this season, Simeone is the one to blame.
The Atletico Madrid manager has changed his formation, system and personnel way too often. The Argentine needs to stick to one thing even if it doesn't get results straight away. For the next game Koke and Thomas Lemar are injured while Marcos Llorente could be back. Saul Niguez is suspended while Sergio Reguilon could make his club debut. Espanyol are currently 16th on the La Liga table having won just 2 games. Dropping points against them at this stage of the season could be catastrophic for Atletico Madrid.
