Spanish La Liga resumes on the weekend of February 24-26 and the big match of round 24 is between Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona at the Vicente Calderon. The two teams have faced off thrice already this season with two draws at Camp Nou and a narrow win at the Vicente Calderon in a Copa del Rey tie.

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has come under criticism after losing on the road in the Uefa Champions league to Paris Saint Germain and playing out an even game against Leganes – a team that is battling relegation. On the other hand, Atletico Madrid coach Diego Pablo Simeone after the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg defeat has not lost in any competition and would want to extend this run.

Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona want to close the gap in la Liga

League leaders Real Madrid played one of two outstanding matches against Valencia on Wednesday losing 1-2 at the Estadio Mestalla and maintained a one-point lead over Barcelona. With a game in hand against Celta Vigo to come for the league leaders, Barcelona would like to put Real Madrid under intense pressure.

Sevilla FC and Barcelona are three and four points ahead of Atletico Madrid and Diego Simeone would like to take advantage of the out-of-form Messi, Suarez, and Neymar and cut the lead to within one point of FC Barcelona and get an automatic qualification to the Uefa Champions league.

The world could get to see if manager Luis Enrique would select Andre Gomes again after fans took swipe at the midfielder for his performance against PSG.

Neymar and Luis Suarez would need to up their game in order to assist Lionel Messi as they have always done or see Atletico Madrid close in and Real Madrid widen the gap.

Atletico Madrid is favorites to win this tie against FC Barcelona

After back-to-back wins against Sporting Gijon and Bayer04 Leverkusen, Diego Simeone’s side feature the mid-weeks unplayable Kevin Gameiro and Antione Griezmann and they are favorites to take revenge against FC Barcelona.

Griezmann became the clubs all-time goal scorer in the Champions league on Tuesday and would be relying on his teammates to help Close The Gap.

Diego Simeone has strength in depth with Nicolas Gaitan and Fernando Torres warming the bench on almost every match day. These are two players that can make the difference for any team on any given day. A game that sees Simeone continue his run or Enrique silence his critics cannot be missed. The match comes off on Sunday, February 26 at 3:15PM GMT.