ATLÉTICO DE MADRID - GRANADA
Torres up for the fun and games at the Calderon
It's Children's Day at the Vicente Calderon as Atletico play host to Granada, and Fernando Torres returns to the XI - as does Savic, who comes in for Filipe Luis.
Little over a week ago, a photograph started doing the rounds on social networking sites following Atlético's game in Cornellà. It was taken 15 years ago and shows five young men - one of them, the eldest, stands head and shoulders above the rest Fernando Torres and while he'd already made his debut with the senior side, he was still 'El Niño', the team's reference. Standing right next to him in that image is Koke, aged 9 and who had only recently arrived at the club's youth academy.
So much has changed since that photograph was taken - Koke is now El Niño's partner in crime, he has played in Torres for half of the six goals he has scored in the past month and a half. It's a telepathic understanding - they have an ability to find each other without even looking. And that has enabled Atleti to continue battling on domestic and European fronts.
Their unique connection won't be the sole focus of today's game against Granada. Saúl will also be supplying Torres with an endless stream of balls to spint on to. For him, it was precisely half a season ago in the first meeting with Granada, when everything began. Tiago's injury gave him an opportunity to break into the side; until then he'd played just 325 minutes in the league... Since then he's played 1,880. Lucas meanwhile is unlikely to leave the XI even though Savic is back: Simeone will field him at left-back to cover for the suspension-hit Filipe. He's won the coach's confidence all on his own.
The rest of the team will be made up of those who played in the Champions League quarter final return leg at Camp Nou. That's all been put to one side for the moment. The League could not be much tighter. Real Madrid won yesterday afternoon and moved provisionally second. Barça face Valencia immediately after Atleti's game and if the Rojiblancos win, only goal average will separate them.
El Cholo's troops will take some comfort from the stats books - Granada have only ever won away at Atlético once and that was almost six decades ago - well before the Calderón had even been built. The Andalucians scored a 0-2 result at the old Metropolitan ground on 18 October 1959. Since then, the best they have managed is three draws (1943-44, 1944-45 y 1974-75), the rest, all defeats.