Their gap to third-place Villarreal grew to five points after the Yellow Submarine drew with Oviedo on Thursday; eight points separate them from Real Betis in fifth. Wednesday’s match against Elche was a disappointing one for the Colchoneros. Although there were positives — Pablo Barrios made his first appearance since March 10, Nico Gonzalez scored a memorable brace and young players like Obed Vargas,Julio Díaz and Javier Boñar had good showings, a red card-and-penalty double-whammy to Thiago Almada had Atleti down a man for an hour in the eventual 3-2 defeat.It’s no secret that Cholo Simeone has put LaLiga toward the bottom of his competitive priorities, but how hard will he go after Athletic Club on Saturday?

A match marked by longstanding historical tension between the clubs, Atlético would love nothing more than a win entering Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League semifinal first leg against Arsenal.It’s been a season of mediocrity for Athletic Club (12-5-15, 41 points). After Los Leones finished fourth in LaLiga last season, Ernesto Valverde’s squad had everything in front of them coming into this season. The club retained Nico Williams on a new 10-year contract and had returned to the Champions League for the first time in more than a decade.

However, the Zuri-Gorriak fell short in three of the four competitions and appear to be on the outside looking in on LaLiga’s European places.Athletic Club finished 29th in the Champions League group stage, winning only two games. Athletic lost 5-0 to Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup and flamed out in the Copa del Rey semifinal against Real Sociedad. Athletic will need a strong end of the season just to make the UEFA Conference League.Athletic won Tuesday against Osasuna, though the 1-0 win came at a cost.

Key midfielder Mikel Jauregizar picked up a red card in the dying moments of the match following a brutal challenge on former Atleti left-back Javi Galán. Valverde will be unable to rely on Beñat Prados, who is out for the season, and Aymeric Laporte is a doubt after he picked up a hamstring injury against Osasuna.This will be Valverde’s final meeting with Simeone, as the veteran coach will depart the club at the end of the season. Former Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzić is taking over as Valverde’s replacement from the beginning of the 2026/27 season.Team newsDiego Simeone confirmed that Jan Oblak will start against Athletic Club following a rocky showing against Elche.

A big performance on Saturday would go a long way toward reaffirming the Slovenian’s status as the number-one goalkeeper.Dávid Hanckotrained normally on Friday morning, as did Alexander Sørloth. But the squad is not quite back to full strength as Ademola Lookman and José María Giménez were noted as absent from Friday’s training. Per Simeone, Lookman appears to be progressing through his recovery nicely and the man in black even had a little fun with the media suggesting that it was probably for the best that Lookman was subbed off early in the Copa del Rey final.

Simeone received ample criticism from fans (me included) for this substitution, but it appears that it will pay off and the Nigerian will be ready for Wednesday against Arsenal.Thiago Almada is ineligible to play after his midweek sending-off, and per Matteo Moretto, the club is actively listening to offers for the 24-year-old Argentina international. Keeping Almada is not a priority for Atletico or for Simeone, and a good offer could see him leave in the summer.While Almada appears to be trending down, Nico is trending up following his brilliant outing against Elche. Per Moretto on Radio MARCA, Atleti and Juventus remain poised to sit down and talk about lowering the €32M buy obligation in his loan contract. Atleti want to pay between €20-25M for Nico, but Juventus boss Luciano Spalletti likes Nico’s profile would be happy to welcoem him back to Turin.🤔𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐎: ¿𝐋𝐀 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐕𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐋?Su actuación vs Elche