Last season's La Liga and Champions League winners are set to face off Saturday. Rob Train (Real Madrid) and Joe Walker (Atletico Madrid) discuss the match and who will claim early bragging rights in the league.
How's your form looking ahead of this one?
Rob Train: Not great. I'm pretty sure nobody at the Bernabeu envisaged such a shaky start to the season after a summer of lavish spending to improve a Champions League-winning squad. But the absence of key players from last season in the shape of Xabi Alonso and Angel di Maria has left Carlo Ancelotti with another team-building exercise on his hands. The 4-2 loss in Anoeta highlighted the team's deficiencies, especially defensive frailty from set-pieces. Without Alonso's calming influence in front of the back four, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric were overrun in midfield and Real's flanks were left exposed by the lack of help from the front players; James Rodriguez was particularly culpable in that respect and unfavourable comparisons with Di Maria's work rate inevitably followed.
Ancelotti last season found the answers to overcome a spluttering start and doubtless he will again, even if those answers were the departed Alonso and Di Maria. Unfortunately for the Italian, the fixture computer has thrown up a derby just when he least wanted one -- after an international week. He hasn't had much time with his players to work on the flaws so brutally exposed by Real Sociedad in a game that Atletico boss Diego Simeone will also have in the video player during the week. The question is which Real Madrid will emerge from the tunnel: the one that blew Sociedad away with an awesome display of attacking football, or the side that subsequently fell apart tactically and mentally to concede four?
Joe Walker: Four points from two games is not a bad return (better than Real Madrid!), especially as the team has lost a lot of players and brought in an entirely new front line which is still developing and needs time to gel. The defence is as assured as ever, having only conceded two goals in the four games played this season (if you include the Super Cup). Atleti have looked like they miss the suspended Simeone's presence on the sidelines, something which was more evident away to Rayo Vallecano than it was at home to Eibar, but the first league derby since Los Rojiblancos were crowned La Liga champions should gear up the players just as much as their manager can, and there will be no shortage of motivation as the players fly into tackles. The boys should be buoyed by the Spain international trio of Koke, Raul Garcia and Juanfran, who return following the 5-1 thrashing of Macedonia, while Saul Niguez was the match winner for Spain under-21s as they won their European Championship qualifying group.
What lessons do you hope to learn from the two matches last season?
RT: Atletico Madrid under Simeone are as predictable as the Madrid summer, but advance knowledge doesn't make the opponent any easier to tackle. Atletico will press relentlessly and rile up their rivals from just inside the letter of the law; Diego Costa may be gone but Mario Mandzukic is cut from similar cloth and has already made Sergio Ramos' acquaintance. A typically robust derby is likely as Atletico will try to stop Real from playing and to avoid any chance of a 20-minute pummelling like that endured by la Real.
Last season Real lost this fixture to a typical Atletico smash and grab, but went on to hit 11 goals against their city rivals in the next four games across league and cup competitions. Against the most miserly defence in Spain and Europe last year that is no mean feat.
Real knows how to score goals against Atletico but the Rojiblancos also know where to hit Real where it hurts; three of Atletico's last four strikes against Ancelotti's team have come from dead ball situations.
Real can expect plenty of possession but cannot afford any lapses of concentration at the back; one would have thought assistant coach Fernando Hierro has been drilling the culprits in defending corners over the last few days. But as Iker Casillas said after the Anoeta debacle, a team defends as a team. With that in mind, and given the genuine need for a result rather than a flashy performance, Ancelotti should consider leaving James out of the side and bolstering his midfield with Asier Illarramendi or Fabio Coentrao alongside Kroos and Modric.
JW: The match will be as intense as ever. Tackles are bound to fly in, tempers will flare and there would be very little surprise if there were a red card. With last year's Bernabeu match-winner Costa now departed, a lot of the onus will be on Mandzukic, who carried on Costa's running battle with Ramos over the two legs of the Super Cup, and scored the winner at the Vicente Calderon. Both the Croatia international and Garcia will be crucial given Real Madrid's decision to reinstate Casillas in goal, a move which leaves them all at sea defensively when crosses come into the danger zone; something of an Atleti special. Real attack with pace down the flanks, but last season Felipe Luis was able to contain Gareth Bale so well that it was barely evident the Welshman was playing, meaning his replacement Guilherme Siqueira will have his work cut out to ensure the same outcome. All in all, expect a feisty match that will be won by the side whose defence is able to cope and manage their opponent's strengths the better.
X Factor
RT: Despite Real's embarrassment of attacking riches, there is one player Atletico would remove from the opposing side if handed the option. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 13 times against the Rojiblancos, and while Simeone will not leave Bale, Karim Benzema or James unattended if they play, Ronaldo will receive special attention from Juanfran, who will be covered himself by one of the centre backs when the Portuguese is in possession.
Ronaldo has been putting in double shifts on the training ground to be fit for the match and has apparently finally fully recovered from his various nagging injuries. With two weeks of match-free training under his belt and back in optimum condition for the first time in months, Ronaldo could prove to be real nightmare for Atletico.
JW: Garcia might not be the most glamorous of players, but he has developed his game enormously over the last 18 month and is now a full Spain international. In a new role just behind the striker, he runs tirelessly for the side, and uses his strength to hold off defenders and keep the ball when Los Colchoneros play against more attack-minded sides (such as Real Madrid) and look to break. His aerial prowess was evident last season and, given the problems that Los Blancos have faced from wide delivery, he will be looking to take advantage of any indecision or slack marking, just as he did in the dying moment of the first leg of the Super Cup.
Fear Factor
RT: He hasn't quite hit his stride at Atletico yet, but Antoine Griezmann is a player born for the big stage. Having reined in the youthful off-field exuberance that once saw him banned from representing France, Griezmann has matured into a genuine world-class talent with the ability to turn a game in a flash.
Griezmann has established himself with Les Bleus and was coveted across Europe this summer after an eye-catching campaign with Real Sociedad last season. Atletico made the forward the club's second most expensive signing in history and I quite fancy him to endear himself to the handful of travelling fans in the Bernabeu with a performance to justify that bill.
JW: You get the impression that having been in the Spanish capital for 12 months Bale now feels he is part of the furniture and really belongs at Real Madrid. Fronting all the new ad campaigns and sporting a dodgy Alice band on hair that is not quite long enough to justify one, the Welshman has all the makings of a true Galactico. He is a world-class player (after all, he cost over 100 million euros -- what do you expect?!) who has lightning pace, a terrific left foot and knows how to finish. He has stepped it up in all of the big games he has played while in Spain, and gave Siqueira a torrid 90 minutes at the Bernabeu in August. With Ronaldo looking below par and obviously carrying an injury that refuses to go away, the onus will be on Bale to deliver and more often than not, he does.
Prediction
RT: Atletico's front line may be brand new, but the foundation of the side remains, as does the ethos and the staggering work rate. It won't be very pretty or high scoring: 1-1
JW: 1-1 -- A head over heart decision here. Real Madrid will always look frightening going forward, but their defensive issues might just come back to haunt them.