Atletico Madrid vs Leganes Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

This has been Atletico Madrid’s poorest season under Diego Simeone and it took another turn for the worse in midweek with their 2-1 defeat at home against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey. They are likely to be faced with a very different challenge here though with Leganes likely to make the short trip with the intention of parking the bus and that is a strategy which can work pretty well against an Atleti side that does struggle to break teams down at times.

As a result a low-scoring game looks likely here. There have been under 2.5 goals in 60% of Atleti games in La Liga this term and in 56% of their home games. Diego Simeone’s men have only netted two goals in their last four home matches in the league and again dropped points last weekend, when they were held to a 0-0 draw by another of the newly promoted sides, Alaves.

They were also restricted to a 0-0 draw when they visited Leganes earlier in the season and it’s not particularly hard to guess what their strategy will be here. They will sit very deep and that really doesn’t suit Atleti’s game as they have lots of quick players in their ranks, who prefer space to run into. Atleti have managed to keep clean sheets in 55% of their games in La Liga this term and the visitors are unlikely to pose much of a threat themselves.

Leganes matches have also tended to be relatively low scoring on the whole. There have been under 2.5 goals in 55% of their league games this season and both teams have scored in only 40% of them. For a newly promoted club, who’d never played in the top flight previously, they’ve equipped themselves pretty well, particularly at the back. A 30% clean sheet ratio is very respectable but they lack a striker of any real quality and 1 win in 15 matches coming into this one, suggests they will cause Atleti few problems.

With Atleti out of sorts and with one eye on Tuesday’s game in Barcelona, they are unlikely to run away with it though and backing Under 2.5 goals at 4/5 could be the way to go here.