Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke. (Photo : Getty Images)
Top contenders Atletico Madrid (23-5-4, 73 points) will look to take over league leadership this weekend as they clash with lowly squad Granada CF (7-16-9, 30 points), who are fighting off relegation, at the Vicente Calderón Stadium on Sunday, April 17th as the 2015-2016 La Liga season enters its final six matchdays.
Atletico Madrid is having a lot of momentum going into their last few games in the Spanish top flight after having a monumental two weeks, stringing two straight wins in the domestic top flight and at the same time eliminating defending La Liga and Champions League winners FC Barcelona in the quarterfinals of this season's UEFA Champions League tournament.
Diego Simeone's squad once again proved their status as the stingiest club defense in Europe after beating the continent's most powerful offensive force Barça, 2-0, in the said match, the second leg of their last eight head-to-head encounter, and winning on aggregate, 3-2.
In La Liga, Atleti is also coming off a highly impressive 3-1 victory over Espanyol at the Estadi Cornellà-El Prat last Saturday, as per SkySports.
Los Periquitos midfielder Pape Diop actually scored the opening goal of the match at the 29th minute, but Los Colchoneros responded with a three-goal comeback courtesy of goals from strikers Fernando Torres and Antoine Griezmann at the 35th and 58th minutes while also having one from midfielder Koke one minute before the full time whistle was blown.
The win was a follow-up to their 5-1 thrashing of Real Betis during the previous matchday to pull them close to only three points behind Barça in the overall standings.
Meanwhile, Granada is on a five-game winless slide and precariously only two points above the bottom three relegation zone.
Their last match was a goalless draw with middling club Malaga CF in an Andalusian derby at the Estadio Los Carmenes on April 8th, as reported by Goal.
Granada's Nigerian striker Isaac Success had one chance at the goal wide during the match and had a second half penalty denied after the foul by Los Boquerones defender Federico Ricca was ruled outside the penalty area.
The predicted result is a 3-0 romp for Atletico Madrid to temporarily draw even with Barcelona in the league table.
Atletico Madrid starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Oblak; Juanfran, Godin, Gomez, Luis; Gabi, Fernandez, Koke; Griezmann, Torres, Carrasco
Granada starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Andres; Lopes, Babin, Costa, Biraghi; Perez, Doucoure; Cuenca, Rochina, Success; El Arabi
