MADRID (AP) – Barcelona and Atletico Madrid will face off on Saturday in the Spanish league after suffering setbacks in the foreign stop.
Atlético, who has the possibility to open a nine-point lead over their Catalan rivals, will be striker Luis Suarez for the match at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. He is said to have faced his former club for the first time, but tested positive for coronavirus while serving with the Uruguay national team.
A moment of check-up on Wednesday also positive, forcing him to remain isolated. The newly signed midfielder Atletico Lucas Torreira has also tested positive for the Uruguayan national team and will not be available either.
Barcelona, for his part, will not have Sergio Busquets, who was injured playing for the Spanish national team.
There was a lot of stir around Suarez’s match with Barcelona, which left the striker out of the offseat after coach Ronald Koeman arrived to reorganize the team.
However, not everything is negative for Atletico. Some of the team’s players did well with their national groups to rest, adding Jorge “Koke” Resurrection, Renan Lodi and Joel Felix.
Koke helped Spain beat Germany 6-0, while Lodi played in Brazil’s 2-0 win over Uruguay and Felix scored a goal in Portugal’s 3–2 win over Croatia.
“We’re going to come for this very motivated match, ” said Felix. “We all know Barcelona, they like to keep the ball and they will make us run more than usual. But if we play our game, we will have a wonderful game These are the matches that we like to play, as opposed to smart teams, wonderful players.
Barcelona also had several players on a foreign mission, Lionel Messi with Argentina.
Messi returned to Spain on Wednesday and escaped after being asked about a complaint from him through a former agent of his partner Antoine Griezmann.
“To be honest, I’m a little tired of being the challenge of everything at this club,” Messi said.
He also complained that he had to undergo an inspection through Spanish tax on the aircraft upon arrival.
Real Sociedad leads the league with 20 points, 3 more than Atletico’s Third Position and more than Barcelona’s eighth position. Atletico and Barcelona, however, have two matches at stake.
The Real Sociedad against Cadiz, the sixth seed, on Sunday, while Villarreal, second-placed, on two issues of the leader, receives Real Madrid on Saturday.
Madrid are in fourth place with 16 problems and have one less match. The protective champions also won bad news on the outside stop when Captain Sergio Ramos injured his right leg in Spain’s League of Nations goal on Tuesday.
Madrid’s other central defender, Raphael Varane, was injured while playing for France.
In other matches this weekend, Sevilla receives Celta de Vigo on Saturday and Valencia Alavés on Sunday.
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