Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid Line Ups: Messi, Pique To Return; Vidal Suspended

Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid Line Ups: Messi, Pique To Return; Vidal Suspended

Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique will return to the starting lineup when Barcelona welcome Atletico Madrid to Camp Nou on Saturday.

Barcelona will be hoping to stretch their lead atop the La Liga table to 11 points when they play hosts to second-placed Atletico Madrid on Saturday night.

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Barcelona boss, Ernesto Valverde will definitely be without Ousmane Dembele, Arturo Vidal and Rafinha Alcantara, while there are doubts over the availability of Jasper Cillessen, even though he is part of the matchday squad.

The big change will see Gerard Pique return to the starting lineup in place of Samuel Umtiti, who was rather disappointing in the 4-4 draw against Villarreal.

The veteran defender was one of the topics of discussions for Valverde, who also talked about Umtiti's poor performance.

Lionel Messi, who made a big difference off the bench against Villarreal, should return to the starting lineup, with Luis Suarez leading the line for Barcelona.

The final spot in the side should be taken by Philippe Coutinho, with Malcom missing out.

Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid Pre Match Insights

  • Barcelona are unbeaten in their last 12 LaLiga games at Camp Nou against Atletico de Madrid (W9 D3), with their last defeat against them there coming back in February 2006 (1-3).
  • Atletico de Madrid are winless in their last 17 LaLiga matches against Barcelona (D5 L12) – only against Real Madrid between 2000 and 2013 (23 games) have they had a longer run without a win against a single opponent in the top-flight.
  • Since the start of last season, Atletico de Madrid have failed to win in their four trips to Catalonia in LaLiga (P4 W0 D2 L2), failing to score in two of them.
  • Barcelona are currently enjoying a run of 18 games without defeat in LaLiga (W14 D4), the longest ongoing unbeaten streak of any club in the big five European leagues.
  • Atlético de Madrid have won six of their last seven LaLiga games (L1), keeping a clean sheet in each of those wins.

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Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid Line Ups

This article was most recently revised and updated 1 year ago