No Suárez and Busquets as Atlético hosts Barcelona in Spain

Barcelona and Atlético Madrid will meet within the Spanish league on Saturday after each going through setbacks in the course of the worldwide break. Atlético, which has an opportunity to open a nine-point lead over its Catalan rival, will likely be with out ahead Luis Suárez for the match on the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. Suárez would have been going through his previous membership for the primary time however he examined positive for the coronavirus whereas on responsibility with Uruguay’s nationwide workforce.

A second test on Wednesday was additionally positive, forcing him to stay in isolation. Newly signed Atlético midfielder Lucas Torreira additionally examined positive whereas with the Uruguayan nationwide workforce and gained’t be accessible both.

Barcelona, in the meantime, will likely be with out Sergio Busquets, who was injured whereas taking part in with Spain’s nationwide workforce.

There had been numerous hype surrounding Suárez’s assembly with Barcelona, which let the striker go within the offseason after coach Ronald Koeman arrived to revamp the squad.

It’s not all damaging for Atlético, nonetheless. Some of the workforce’s gamers did properly with their nationwide groups over the break, Jorge “Koke” Resurrección, Renan Lodi and João Félix amongst them.

Koke helped Spain rout Germany 6-0, whereas Lodi performed in Brazil’s 2-Zero win over Uruguay and Félix scored a objective in Portugal’s 3-2 victory over Croatia.

“We are going to arrive for this match very motivated,” Félix mentioned. “We all know Barcelona, they like to keep possession and they will make us run more than usual. But if we play our game, we will have a great match. These are the matches that we like to play, against good teams, against great players.”

Barcelona additionally had a number of gamers out on worldwide responsibility, together with Lionel Messi with Argentina.

Messi returned to Spain on Wednesday and vented after being requested in regards to the criticism directed at him by a former agent of teammate Antoine Griezmann.

“To be honest, I’m a bit tired of always being the problem for everything in this club,” Messi mentioned.

He additionally complained about having to endure an inspection by Spanish tax officers on the aircraft upon his arrival.

Real Sociedad leads the league with 20 factors, three greater than third-place Atlético and 9 greater than eighth-place Barcelona. Both Atlético and Barcelona have two video games in hand, nonetheless.

Real Sociedad visits sixth-place Cádiz on Sunday, whereas second-place Villarreal, two factors off the lead, hosts Real Madrid on Saturday.

Madrid is in fourth place with 16 factors and has one sport in hand. The defending champions additionally bought some unhealthy information in the course of the worldwide break when captain Sergio Ramos injured his proper leg in Spain’s rout of Germany within the Nations League on Tuesday.

Madrid’s different central defender, Raphael Varane, was injured whereas taking part in for France.

In different matches this weekend, Sevilla hosts struggling Celta Vigo on Saturday, and Valencia visits Alavés on Sunday.