Atletico Madrid vs Malaga Prediction (19.08.2026)

Atletico Madrid did not have a particularly good season and finished with the fewest points in the last 14 years. There was definitely room for improvement in defense, as they conceded more goals than usual. The start was also not good, beginning for the first time in the last 14 years with a loss, losing away to Espanyol. However, now they are at home and performed very strongly at home during the last campaign, and generally. Diego Simeone was once again active in the transfer market. The captain of Sporting Lisbon, Morten Hjulmand, joined the squad. Part of the team are already Cristian Romero from Tottenham, Alex Grimaldo from Leverkusen, and Lee Kang-In from PSG. Julian Alvarez is still part of the team, although it is unclear for how long, and the situation with him remains interesting.

After an eight-year absence, Málaga returns to La Liga. To achieve this, they won the decisive playoff against Almería last season, finishing with a strong final sprint. Now they must maintain their place in the elite. Málaga had a generally "quiet" summer regarding the transfer market and mostly retained their squad.

It is normal to expect a home victory for Atletico against one of the newcomers to the elite. Atletico, during the summer preparation, not only last season, had quite a few high-scoring matches, and relatively rarely kept a clean sheet, so I would risk that they will win this time, but both teams will score in the match.

This text is an AI-assisted translation in English. Link to the original source in Bulgarian ➔