Preview: Atletico Madrid vs. Real Betis - prediction, team news, lineups

Atletico Madrid will be looking to return to winning ways in Spain's top flight when they welcome Real Betis to the Wanda Metropolitano on Saturday night.

Diego Simeone 's side were held to a 1-1 draw at Celta Vigo on Tuesday, while Betis will enter the match off the back of an impressive 3-0 success at home to Osasuna.

Match preview

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Atletico extended their unbeaten run in La Liga to 13 matches on Tuesday night, although it was not quite the result that they would have had in mind as Celta picked up a point in a 1-1 draw.

Simeone's team have been impressive since returning to action last month, winning five of their eight matches, sharing the points in the other three.

The capital giants were actually sixth entering the lockdown period in March, but they are now in an excellent position when it comes to securing a top-four finish in the table.

Indeed, the Red and Whites are currently third, three points clear of fourth-placed Sevilla and six clear of fifth-placed Villarreal, suggesting that something drastic would have to happen for them to drop out of the Champions League positions over the next 10 days.

In terms of what is ahead, Atletico will travel to Getafe in their penultimate league game of the season on July 14 before finishing their La Liga campaign at home to Real Sociedad four days later.

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Betis, meanwhile, have shown signs of improvement since Rubi was dismissed as head coach last month.

Alexis Trujillo was placed in charge of the Seville side on an interim basis for the second time, having previously held the post in May 2017, and the Spaniard has overseen two wins, one draw and two defeats from five games.

Los Verdiblancos will enter this weekend's match off the back of an impressive 3-0 win at home to Osasuna on Wednesday night, which left the team in 13th position in the table.

Betis are six points off the top of the division, though, and there is no question that it has been a disappointing campaign for the club despite their recent improvement.

Beticos suffered a 2-1 loss to Atletico in the reverse league match earlier this season, but they did beat Simeone's side 1-0 in Seville last February.

Atletico La Liga form: WWWDWD

Betis La Liga form: LWLLDW

Team News

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Atletico were without the services of Diego Costa against Celta through suspension, but the Spain international is available for this game and could return to the starting XI.

Costa is likely to join Alvaro Morata as part of a front two with Joao Felix still on the sidelines through injury.

Mario Hermoso and Sime Vrsaljko are also still injured, but Simeone is expected to shuffle his pack from the Celta game with Kieran Trippier likely to return to the side at right-back.

As for Betis, Sergio Canales missed out against Osasuna through suspension, but the Spaniard is available for this game, meaning that the visitors have a full squad to choose from.

William Carvalho and Cristian Tello are both pushing for returns to the starting side, but the bulk of the XI that impressively overcame Osasuna are likely to feature once again.

Nabil Fekir joined Borja Iglesias through the middle on Wednesday and that could again be the case here, although Trujillo will monitor the recovery of his players over the next few days before making a final call.

Atletico possible starting lineup:

Oblak; Trippier, Savic, Gimenez, Lodi; Koke, Saul, Thomas, Correa; Morata, Costa

Betis possible starting lineup:

Martin; Emerson, Mandi, Feddal, Moreno; Joaquin, Rodriguez, Carvalho, Pedraza; Fekir, Iglesias

We say: Atletico 1-0 Betis

Betis put in a strong performance against Osasuna in their last match, but there are not many more tougher grounds to visit than the Wanda Metropolitano. Atletico will be keen to return to winning ways after sharing the points with Celta, and we are expecting a narrow home victory on Saturday night.