Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo. (Photo : Getty Images)
A capital city derby between Real Madrid (16-3-6, 54 points) and Atletico Madrid (17-4-4, 55 points) is scheduled on Saturday, Feb. 27th at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium as the 2015-2016 La Liga season continues.
The two teams are coming off drawn matches as both try to overtake current league leaders and defending champions FC Barcelona in the overall standings.
Los Blancos is at the third spot of the Spanish top flight table as of the moment, just a point behind Atletico but nine points clear off arch-rival Barcelona.
Zinedine Zidane's boys were fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw in their most recent match against middling squad Malaga on the road at the La Rosaleda Stadium last Sunday, as reported by SkySports.
Real's superstar forward Cristiano Ronaldo scored at the 33rd minute to open things up, but missed a penalty kick in the first half to allow Los Boquerones defender Raul Albentosa to equalize the count at the 66th.
The draw gave Los Vikingos just one point in the standings that allowed Barça to increase their lead on their El Clásico opponents.
Malaga had numerous chances to grab the lead later in the match, but Real's defenses held on to salvage the tie.
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid settled for a goalless draw with fellow contending squad Villarreal CF at the Vicente Calderon Stadium also last Sunday, as per Goal.
Los Colchoneros had been in control of the ball most of the time during the match, but their "lack of precision in front of the goal" had once again cost them three points in the league table.
Diego Simeone's side is currently at second place in the standings and is now eight points behind Barça as the team is in danger of letting the La Liga trophy slip away from its hands.
French striker Antoine Griezmann came closest to netting what would have been the winner, but instead some feisty altercations on the pitch forced Simeone to replace him with Oliver Torres two minutes after the hour mark of the match.
Atleti needs to win this match against Real to separate themselves from the third runners as Los Blancos desperately try to reach Barça on top of the leaderboard with the season slowly winding down.
The predicted result is a 3-1 win by Real Madrid. Atleti continues to be out of form especially in the offensive end.
Real Madrid starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Navas; Carvajal, Nacho, Ramos, Marcelo; Modric, Kroos, Kovacic; Jese, Isco, Ronaldo
Atletico Madrid starting lineup (4-4-2 formation): Oblak; Juanfran, Savic, Godin, Luis; Koke, Fernandez, Niguez, Correa; Griezmann, Torres
