Copa Del Rey Odds: Atleti in must-win vs Barca
Barcelona (-180) v Atletico Madrid (+600), Draw (+335)
Atletico Madrid will need a big win over Barcelona if they are going to advance to the finals of the Copa Del Rey. Down 2-1 after the first leg, Atleti will travel to Camp Nou on Tuesday, February 2, for the the second leg of their Copa semifinal with Barca.
Barcelona beat Atletico 2-1 in the first leg at Vicente Calderon on Wednesday. Luis Suarez opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a brilliant solo-effort, receiving the ball in Barca’s half and cutting through the Atleti defense singlehandedly. Lionel Messi later made it 2-0 in the 33rd minute with a shot from range.
Atletico fought back and, as we’ve come to expect, their star striker Antoine Griezmann came through. In the 59th minute, a long Atleti free-kick was headed into the penalty area by Diego Godin and Griezmann was there to put on the finishing touches.
Messi came inches from scoring a second from a spot kick, but was denied by the fingertips of Miguel Ángel Moyá. Atletico manager Diego Simeone pushed back as aggressively as he could, putting on forwards Fernando Torres and Kevin Gameiro. The Atleti side pressed Barcelona for the remainder of the game, but it was to no avail and Barcelona left Madrid with a big win and two away goals. In order to advance, Atletico will have to come away with a hefty win over Barcelona at Camp Nou. Even a 1-0 win will not see them through.
That puts Simeone in a tough position. The defensively-minded manager prefers to invite his opponents to attack and open themselves up, relying on the strength of Atletico’s defense. That won’t work on Tuesday, and Barcelona will be more than happy to play a cautious, possession-heavy game if pressure isn’t applied.
Atletico have been known to shine when their backs are against the wall. But beating Barcelona at Camp Nou is one of the toughest tasks in world football. Barcelona don’t have to win the second leg, they just have to get by. And I think they’ll do just that.
Pick: Draw (+335)
Photo credit: “Messi” by Carlos RM, CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Flickr [Cropped].
Don Aguero is a man of many talents, writing about nearly anything you can put odds to. Don has been writing for SportsBettingDime since 2015, covering sports, entertainment and politics. You name it, he's covered it! He is also a steadfast West Ham fan, and has learned to embrace that suffering.
