La Liga Odds: Madrid Derby Hits Full Swing
Real Madrid (-125) vs Atletico Madrid (+380), Draw (+280)
It’s derby time for the city of Madrid!
Real Madrid (22-5-2, 71 points) hosts rival Atletico Madrid (18-7-5, 61 points) at the Bernabeu this Saturday, April 8, for what will be both a bitter grudge match and a decisive league game.
Both teams are in spectacular form at the moment. Real Madrid have put their late-February slump behind them and Atleti are doing equally well after a few mid-season hiccups. They bring identical five-game La Liga win streaks into the weekend.
Real Madrid are notoriously difficult to beat at home. They haven’t lost a game at the Bernabeu since February of last year. But guess who dished out that defeat? Yep, Atletico Madrid!
Fernando Torres scored the first and only goal of the game, handing Atletico a rare away victory in the derby. Aside from that, Atleti don’t exactly have a stellar head-to-head record against their bigger, richer counterpart. They’ve only managed to win one of the last six.
Real Madrid are pretty much injury free at the moment. The young Raphael Varane is the only player sidelined. Without him, Los Blancos still have a bullet-proof backline: Marcelo, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, and Dani Carvajal.
Atletico Madrid may be without their new striker, Kevin Gameiro, but that shouldn’t be too big of a problem, either. They’ll just play last season’s starting duo: Fernando Torres and Antoine Griezmann.
This is a crucial game for both teams, but especially for Real Madrid. Barcelona are hot on their heels, currently just two points back. A loss this weekend could see Los Blancos slip to second place (though they have played one fewer game than Barca).
Atleti are currently in a fierce race for third place against Sevilla. Other than that, their fate in the league is pretty much sealed. They’ll finish the season with a Champions League spot but they don’t have a realistic shot at the title, sitting ten points back.
If the derby were held at the Vicente Calderon, I’d be inclined to pick Atleti. But with an in-form Real Madrid side at the Bernabeu, it’s hard to pick against Zidane’s boys.
Pick: Real Madrid (-125)
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.
