Spanish La Liga: BAR vs ATM - This may be Catalans' last attempt to stay in title chase

Barcelona will welcome Atletico Madrid at the camp Nou on Tuesday 30 June as they look to stay in the title chase. Photo of Barcelona: David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images. Photo of Atletico Madrid: Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Following a heartbreaking, frustrating and infuriating draw away to Celta Vigo, Barcelona return to action in La Liga for one last attempt to save their season and stay in the title race when they welcome Atlético Madrid to an empty Camp Nou on Tuesday night in Catalonia.

This is once again not a very good time to be a Barça fan, with a terrifying away from continuing to cost the Blaugrana vital points in what was always going to be a tight title race, and unless Real Madrid somehow drop points unexpectedly in what is a quite comfortable schedule, Barça are simply trying to save face and keep the players in good rhythm for the Champions League in August.

Barcelona Spanish pro Manager Quique Setien confessed: Atletico Madrid "are very solid defensively" 🗣

🗣 @QSetien: ❝@Atleti are a very solid team defensively.❞ #BarçaAtleti pic.twitter.com/KsBuMtqrHX

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) June 29, 2020

But it won’t be easy at all against a red-hot Atlético side: the Colchoneros are unbeaten since the season restart and have won four in a row with three clean sheets, and Diego Simeone’s side seem to have found new life ever since that magical March night at Anfield. Diego Llorente is their new star, but everybody else is doing their part as well and Atleti look much, much better than they did back in February, when it looked like Simeone’s magic was finally starting to disappear.

Atleti’s back. Big time. And they’re ready to beat Barça. Here’s hoping the two-time champions find something within them to respond, win and go ahead of Madrid in the table for a few hours. You never know with football.