📏 Form Guide

Atlético Madrid

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Atlético Madrid enter this game following a 3-3 Champions League stalemate versus Club Brugge.

In that match, Atlético Madrid had 42% possession and 13 shots at goal with 4 on target. For Atlético Madrid, the goals were scored by Julián Alvarez (8') and Ademola Lookman (45'). Club Brugge had 17 shots on goal with 10 on target. Raphael Onyedika (52'), Nicolò Tresoldi (60'), Joel Ordoñez (79' Own goal) and Christos Tzolis (89') scored for Club Brugge.

An interesting theme in recent Atlético Madrid games is the high number of scores with a nil in them.

Taking their previous six clashes before this one, in 5 of them a bet on "Both Teams to Score" would've lost.

Going into this one, Atlético Madrid haven't beaten Espanyol in their previous 5 league games.

Espanyol

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In their previous game, Espanyol drew 2-2 in the La Liga tie with Celta Vigo.

In that match, Espanyol had 43% possession and 9 attempts at goal with 3 of them on target. For Espanyol, goals were scored by García (66') and Tyrhys Dolan (86'). Celta Vigo got 14 attempts on goal with 5 of them on target. Jutglà (38') and Iglesias (93') scored for Celta Vigo.

Espanyol have had no problems opening up opposition defences leading up to this encounter, having scored 7 goals in their last 6 matches. While their manager Manolo González will no doubt take that as a positive sign, Espanyol have had their own issues at the back, also conceding in 6 of those same clashes. We shall soon see if that trend will end up being continued on into this next match.

Looking at the pre-match facts, Espanyol:

• have not won against Atlético Madrid when they've played them away from home in the last 5 matches in the league. Not the best of away records.
• haven't been defeated by Atlético Madrid in away games against them for the last 2 matches in the league.
• haven’t won away from home in the past 3 matches in the league.

↔️ Head to head

If we look at their past head to head meetings going back to 17/04/2022, both clubs have shared the honours with Atlético Madrid winning 1 of those games, Espanyol 1 and 4 being draws in regulation time.

An aggregate of 16 goals were scored between them in this period, with 8 of them for Atleti and 8 netted by Periquitos. That is an average goals per game value of 2.67.

The previous league match between the two was La Liga match day 1 on 17/08/2025 and the score finished Espanyol 2-1 Atlético Madrid.

On that occasion, Espanyol had 40% possession and 9 shots on goal with 5 of them on target. Goals were scored by Rubio (73') and Milla (84').

On the other side, Atlético Madrid had 15 shots at goal with 4 of them on target. Julián Alvarez (37') scored.

The referee was Mateo Busquets Ferrer.

📋 Team News: Atlético Madrid

In our view, Atleti could employ a 4-4-2 system in the match with Jan Oblak, Nahuel Molina, Jose Gimenez, Robin Le Normand, Matteo Ruggeri, Giuliano Simeone, Marcos Llorente, Johnny Cardoso, Thiago Almada, Alejandro Baena and Alexander Soerloth.

📰 Team News: Espanyol

We reckon that Periquitos could decide to elect for a 3-2-4-1 system with a starting lineup of Marko Dmitrovic, Clemens Riedel, Fernando Calero, Leandro Cabrera, Omar El Hilali, Carlos Romero, Jofre Carreras, Pol Lozano, U. Gonzalez de, Tyrhys Dolan and Kike Garcia.

🧠 Prediction

We’re of the view that Atlético Madrid can be able to score a couple when they come up against Espanyol, who won’t find it easy to score themselves.

We’re therefore anticipating a comfortable 2-0 winning margin for Atlético Madrid at the end of the 90 minutes.

Victor Martins, 19:07 21/02/2026