Espanyol vs Atletico Madrid Match Overview – 17.08.2025

Atletico Madrid, one of the usual contenders for the La Liga title, start their 2025/26 season with a trip to Barcelona. Diego Simeone’s team will face Espanyol at the RCDE Stadium in the Catalan capital. Let’s see what we can tell you about it in our high-odds football predictions this weekend.

Cholo Simeone dreams of leading Atletico to a third La Liga title under his management. Since joining the club 2011, Simeone turned Atleti to one of the most consistent teams in Spain, winning La Liga twice. It’s not easy to fight Real Madrid and Barcelona for the gold, but the Argentine manager is not scared of such challenges.

Meanwhile Espanyol will try to remain in La Liga for another season. Los Pericos survived during the 2024/25 campaign, although it wasn’t easy, but now the fight starts once again.

Espanyol News & Analysis

Espanyol made many new signings this summer, although most of them were free agents. The club paid for Sporting Braga’s striker Roberto Fernandez while they also signed on a free transfer Tyrhys Dolan, Jose Salinas, Kike Garcia, Miguel Rubio, Marko Dmitrovic and more.

At the same time Los Pericos lost their star goalkeeper Joan Garcia. The 24-years old shot-stopper decided to join the local rival Barcelona. Sergi Gomez and Alvaro Tejero left the club as free agents as well.

Manolo Gonzalez will continue to manage the team. The 46-years old head coach will start his second season in La Liga with the Catalans.

Atletico Madrid News & Analysis

For Atletico Madrid it was a summer of changes as well. Los Colchoneros signed many new players. The most expensive one was Villarreal’s Alex Baena who cost Atletico 42 million euro. Diego Simeone also signed Feyenoord’s David Hancko, Real Betis’ Johnny Cardoso, Botafogo’s Thiago Almada and Napoli’s Giacomo Raspadori.

Meanwhile Rodrigo De Paul, Saul Niguez, Rodrigo Riquelme, Samuel Lino and Axel Witsel all left the club.

The world champion Julian Alvarez remains Atletico Madrid’s biggest hope for the new season. He was arguably the team’s most impressive player during the 2024/25 season. Although he started the previous season a bit slowly, soon after that Alvarez proved his quality to everyone.

Espanyol vs Atletico Madrid Betting Predictions

If everything goes according to plan, Atletico Madrid have to win this one. Espanyol are tough at home, but Los Colchoneros need to start with a win the new season.

Atletico Madrid to Win;
Atletico Madrid Over 1.5 Goals;
Julian Alvarez to Score;

Head-to-Head Matches

Espanyol and Atletico Madrid have played 47 matches against each other so far. Atletico won 19 of them while Espanyol were victorious in 14. There are 14 draws between them as well.

Betting Verdict

This is Atletico Madrid’s game to lose. It’d be interesting to see if Espanyol can make a stand here, but Atleti remain favourites to win. Thank you for staying with us and our high-odds football predictions this weekend.