Tomorrow is Copa Del Rey first leg at Vicente Calderon, one of my favourite fixtures after the Clasico.
Very hard to give a prediction but 0-0 is a good score for Atleti is they close the game, they wont play Mandzukic though since he isnt the explosive counters player, so imo both will try to have possession with amazing ball holders in each side ( Koke-Turan-Griezmann / Isco-James-Modric-Kroos ), i feel Atleti wont loose in their ground.

My prediction : 2-1 in Calderon for Atleti, Real Madrid to qualify in Bernabeu.

I'm not sasying there is anything wrong with parking the bus, but Madrid ussually play counter attacking football, s its hard for them when someones parks the bus

@Real

If I could ask anything of Chelsea for this season, it would be to organise our defence as much as possible and therefore have the best defence in Europe. It's hard to break buses, yes we encountered that in our past as well, yet defence is the most important aspect for doing well in a match. If you don't concede you can't lose, and 60 or so goals a season if enough to win the treble

Atletico's style involves very compact football. They pack their players into small spaces, and then counter-attack lethally with only short passes. They don't have the style of Barcelona or the stars of Real, but they can succeed just as well as either of them.

IMO The thing that football fans fail to understand is very simple . Football has evolved in last several years . Your defense starts from the attack and your attack ( or counter attack ) from defense . It requires total commitment and effort from every player . It is a whole unit of players playing as one , including strikers who are attacking and ruthlessly defending together even in opposition half . Basically in my opinion essence of New modified Total football . It is very effective and ruthlessly lethal !

A lot of fans feel like of Chelsea and Atletico play ugly . To me it is beautiful. I enjoy it ! And last year I felt like we were playing our twin brother from La Liga . Simeone said himself that he does not care if he wins beautiful or ugly and I think that is a right attitude of a champion . No one in future will give a crap about about whether it was ugly football like many like to call it or beautiful . Results are what matters .

It is the beauty of football that wins football fans. The way Simeone plays is not 'ugly'. It is effective. He claims that he doesn't care if he wins 'beautiful or ugly', but he wins beautifully every time. His team are rough, but they play a wonderful style. That's how his team has so many supporters. It's not just because they're knocking Real and Barca off their perch, but it's also because they have a very efficient and effective style with committed players.

Interesting to hear that from you now . Well last time Madrid fans accused them "dirty" ( including you ) , violent , playing very rough and too physical . Remember ?

my prediction:
atletico 2-0 real madrid
raul garcia
jose gimenez

^ Will Raul Garcia score a penalty or open play goal ? :D

@Marcus Yes but Atleti had the technical ability as an addition, but Chelsea this year made the right signings giving more technical skills to their squad, the complicated thing is not to win the first time for teams, its to keep the same motivation and anger/hunger after the win and its not that easy...
Chelsea of this year is twice more dangerous than last year, without Costa-Matic-Cesc you had a PL level, not CL.
This year, you are clearly among top 5 of Europe and you stand a chance with Atleti.

Hmm, @liomessi, hmm...

@liomessi10 You forgot to to say when the goals were scored!

@tiki it will be penalty and ramos will push him down before that
@quickzyy raul garcia will score on min 58 and gimenez will score header from corner on min 76

@Marcus2011 If you saw Simeone as a player, you would agree he was a dirty player, as a manager he is no differe,t his players are all dirty, apart from maybe Koke, Arda, Griezman, Torres and Mandzukic, at least Diego Costa left... Doesn't take anything away from the fact that he's one of the best managers in the world.

@Marcus

That was during the Supercopa and CL final, both of which they spent trying to hack our players down as brutally as possible without getting themselves sent off. There were the slight nicks and knocks from Koke and Turan, and then the brutal leg-breaking challenges from Garcia, Godin, and Siqueira. That was absolutely disgusting.

There were few deferences between Chelsea and Atletico . We did not have a proper Striker and proper CDM and our goalkeeper was 41 years old Australian which forced our defense to lay deeper instead of pushing the line higher ... and game was decided in space of 5 minutes . Save from Courtois ( who should have played but UEFA can bent the rules if it is going to rub a salt to Chelsea ) and then idiotic fault from Eto in penalty box. Nonetheless , Atletico won fair and square and deserved to go through .

@realmadrid

Yes , they called him Pitbull . I am not very familiar with what he did back in playing times , but I am sure it was not so outrages and dirty . These days we have a different definition of a dirty player .

@dynastian

Well , Marcelo labeled them dirty again yesterday , and I saw madrid fans here and there saying the same . Why can't Madrid players and fans admit that Atletico is just better team ?

Well the level difference was more seen in the first leg where Chelsea completely refused to play Football, its their right but dont say you were similar, Mourinho knew his strikers would need twice or even more chances than Atleti ones to score and prefered not to concede hoping to score in a corner or a set piece.
In the second leg, Atleti effectiveness did the job, its seen as small details, but those details make the diference between the team who will go through and the eleminated one.

You are right . Our attackers needed like 10 chances to score 1 goal last season . It was ridiculously annoying ! That is why our defense was our power and that is why we used most powerful tool against Atletico in away match . Refusing is too strong . Our team had many injuries and suspensions during that game and ultra defensive approach was obvious choice. Especially in the game when your number one goalkeeper goes off injured and then your captain not 100% and exits same way . Just too many stuff that you just don't take into consideration at all .

And in second leg , I should have added that some players were not 100% fit to play to begin with . Either way , I am confident if we meet Atletico this year with full fit squad , game will be absolutely different and this time Atletico will hate to play at the Bridge .

I'm sure that Atletico will hold it and go through this round.

@Marcus

Atletico is a better team? They managed to beat us, yes, but since when does that make you instantly the better team? As far as I'm concerned, Madrid won 4 trophies in 2014, compared to Atletico's 2, and had a record of 3-2-2 against Atletico. We are the better team. Atletico are just able to counter us excellently.

Ooh yeah lets compare teams by number of trophies instead of head to head results ... Take out that useless Club World Cup trophy and to win Super Cup Madrid spent another over 100 million pounds in summer to beat poor Sevilla who just lost their soul of the team , Rakitic .

Clearly , Atletico is kryptonite to Madrid .

3-2-2 against Atletico... What part don't you get? @Marcus2011. And yeah, trophies do decide who is the better club. So if you tie both games vs Barca in the league, then lose to them in the cup, and win the UCL without facing them, they beat u in head to head games, but you're still the better team... Atletico isn't kryptonite LMAO, check all the head to head standings, Real have won much more derbi's than Atletico have...