Jornada 23: Racing Santander v Atlético de Madrid

I have one simple wish: Let this be the game that ends our awful run of form.

Aguirre’s pre-game thoughts:
“It is an encounter that has a lot of importance. We come from three games without a win, getting just one point out of a possible nine and having dropped from third to fourth to fifth, so the next game is vital to our aspirations […] We cannot continue losing points. In the second half of the campaign from six possible points at home we have got only one.”

Ironically, we’re playing Racing– the team that kicked off our unbeaten streak in the early part of the season (round 4). Remember? (Click here for comments on that game while it was live.)

At that time, we were desperate to end a rotten run of results and Aguirre’s job was under threat. Perhaps the same will occur this time around as well?

In any case, Racing are actually having a surprisingly good season: they’re still in the Copa & they’re #6 in the league table with two points between themselves and Sevilla.

Here are previous results for this fixture (Racing v Atleti):
06/07 season: 0-1 win for us.
05/06 season: 0-1 win for us.
04/05 season: 2-1 win for them.
03/04 season: 2-2 draw.
02/03 season: 0-2 win for us.

We have a fairly good record against Racing– at their stadium.

Their last 5 Liga games:
1-1 away draw against Levante.
2-2 home draw against Zaragoza
1-0 away loss against Barcelona
0-2 away win against Osasuna.
1-0 home win against Athletic.

Not a bad string of results (except for the draw against Levante).

According to AS, Jordi Felpeto and Jorge López are their only major doubts ahead of the game on Sunday.

Out due to injury: Munitis, Luis Fernández, Toño, and Brian Sarmiento.

In terms of us…

International Duty Accomplished:
Forlán played 74 minutes for Uruguay while Perea played 62 minutes for Colombia. Their friendly was in Montevideo.

Pablo played 45 minutes for Spain against France.

[Update] STARTING 11: Abbiati; Antonio López, Pablo, Perea, Pernía; Raúl García, Simao, Maxi; Agüero & Forlán.

SUBS: Falcón, Luis García, Reyes, Miguel, Domínguez (cantera defender), Mista. 

INJURED: Seitaridis, Leo Franco, Zé Castro, Jurado, Motta, Eller, & Valera.

Kun is fit enough to start, but our injury list is still long, with Motta, Eller, & Valera reinjuring themselves recently…five defenders in total.

Meanwhile, Miguel made it known that he’s prepared to take on more playing time:
“I want to grow as a player and demonstrate that I have a place on the team […]”

Miguel on current run of games:
“The team is working really hard and the results will surely return. We’ll be up top with two positive games, there’s no reason to go crazy, we’re not that bad. We have a complicated month of February, but we’ll surely work things out with victories.”

For some reason, I cracked up when I read, “there’s no reason to go crazy, we’re not that bad”…

Ah, and the rumour of the week was that Pelligrini is on the top of our list of replacements if Aguirre parts ways with the club. This is a major rumour- far from truth or any sort of reality at this point.

Anything missing?