Next weekend’s clash at the Santiago Bernabeu between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will be one of the most important matches of the La Liga season. Following Saturday’s results, which saw Real Madrid lose at Espanyol and Atleti win at home to Mallorca, the gap between the two clubs is only a point.
To make matters worse for Real Madrid, they will be without Antonio Rudiger for the showdown match as he is set to miss the next three weeks of action because of a hamstring injury sustained in the defeat to Espanyol. However, Atleti will also be without one of their starting central defenders.
Robin Le Normand has bee working his way back to full fitness after a traumatic brain injury, which he suffered in the reverse fixture against Real Madrid. He has started Atleti’s last four La Liga matches, but he will not be able to do so at the Bernabeu.
As per Relevo, Le Normand accumulated his fifth yellow card of the season in the victory over Mallorca on Saturday. As a result, he has triggered an automatic one-match suspension in La Liga, which will come into effect next weekend.
Fortunately for Diego Simeone, he does have a ready-made replacement in Jose Maria Gimenez, who has also been working his way back to full fitness after suffering a muscular injury in the victory at Barcelona pre-Christmas. It is expected that he and Clement Lenglet will be the central defensive partnership at the Bernabeu.
However, there was some good news for Atleti as two other players avoided picking up a fifth yellow card of the season in La Liga. The biggest concern was Julian Alvarez, but he managed to play 60 minutes against Mallorca without picking up a booking, before he was taken off for Antoine Griezmann. Meanwhile, Koke Resurreccion was also walking a tightrope, but he survived too.
