{"id":666924,"date":"2026-03-19T13:47:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/666924\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:47:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:47:28","slug":"real-madrid-faces-atletico-in-key-la-liga-derby-as-it-tries-to-catch-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/666924\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid faces Atletico in key La Liga derby as it tries to catch Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADRID (AP) \u2014 Real Madrid<\/a>\u2019s bid to catch Barcelona<\/a> and win La Liga<\/a> faces a critical test in the Spanish capital derby this weekend.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid hosts Atletico Madrid<\/a> on Sunday trailing Barcelona by four points with 10 rounds remaining.<\/p>\n

A win ensures Real stays close to Barcelona or even gains ground on the front-runner if Hansi Flick’s side were to stumble against Rayo Vallecano<\/a> earlier on the same day.<\/p>\n

But a Real loss combined with a Barcelona victory would put Barcelona in a strong position to successfully defend its crown.<\/p>\n

Real, Atletico and Barcelona are all feeling good after eliminating English opponents in the Champions League round of 16 this week.<\/p>\n

Key matches<\/p>\n

Real will be seeking some vengeance for the 5-2 drubbing Atletico dealt it in their first league meeting at Metropolitano Stadium in September.<\/p>\n

That result started the downfall of then-coach Xabi Alonso.<\/p>\n

Real has had some more bad losses under \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa but Alonso\u2019s replacement got a huge boost after his team handily defeated Manchester City<\/a> 5-1 on aggregate to reach the Champions League quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Atletico is in third place in La Liga and a full 13 points behind Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Atletico\u2019s 7-5 aggregate win over Tottenham in the Champions League this week set up a European quarterfinal with Barcelona next month.<\/p>\n

Barcelona will be heavily favored to dispatch Rayo at Camp Nou after it blasted Newcastle<\/a> 7-2 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Players to watch<\/p>\n

Raphinha<\/a> is on fire after five goals in his last two games for Barcelona. He netted a hat trick in a 5-2 win over Sevilla<\/a> in the last round and added two goals against Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbappe<\/a> played the last 20 minutes against City after missing several games with a knee injury. Arbeloa will now have to decide if his star striker is ready to start against Atletico or if it is best to use him off the bench.<\/p>\n

Out of action<\/p>\n

Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois<\/a> tore a muscle in his upper right leg against City, meaning Andriy Lunin<\/a> will be between the posts against Atletico.<\/p>\n

Atletico goalie Jan Oblak<\/a> is doubtful for the derby after a muscle injury in his torso ruled him out of the last game.<\/p>\n

Barcelona goalkeeper Joan Garcia<\/a> also left the midweek Champions League game with an injury scare, but his club said on Thursday he was fine and will be available for Rayo.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Real Madrid\u2019s bid to catch Barcelona and win La Liga faces a critical test in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[282012,6069,1386,1582,276,255655,282013,54921,36535,2961,23958,224,5337,4819,76455,10214,39416],"class_list":["post-666924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-andriy-lunin","tag-atletico-madrid","tag-barcelona","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-event_preview","tag-jan-oblak","tag-joan-garcia","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-la","tag-laliga","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-raphinha","tag-rayo-vallecano","tag-real-madrid","tag-thibaut-courtois"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116256155196440616","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}