Atletico de Madrid vs Eibar preview - Eibar target Atletico upset

Posted Friday, August 29, 2014 by PA

Eibar midfielder Dani Garcia insists his side will take the battle to champions Atletico Madrid on Saturday as they look to build on their fairytale start to life in the top flight.

Promoted Eibar's first-ever Primera Division match saw them defeat Basque rivals Real Sociedad 1-0 last weekend and now they have mighty Atletico in their sights.

Garcia is well aware that if his side show the Champions League finalists too much respect they could be swept aside, so the team's intention must be to get amongst Diego Simeone's men and not let them settle.

He told a press conference: "We are two very competitive teams. They have more quality but it's the team who is the most competitive that will win.

"We will go toe-to-toe with them because, if we don't and we give them the ball, they will really hurt us.

"If we fall back we've lost."

The 24-year-old added: "Saturday's game for us will be like the Champions League final for them. All the Primera teams are full of internationals, just like our opponents on Saturday.

"Their budget is 10 times ours and we're well aware that Atletico are a very strong team who can hurt us, but it's not going to be a David versus Goliath fight. Every team has a weak point and we will try to take advantage of that."

Eibar go into the match two points clear of Atletico after the champions were held to a goalless draw by local rivals Rayo Vallecano in their season-opener on Monday night.

Atletico coach Simeone watched that game from the stands and it will be a similar story this weekend after he was handed an eight-match ban following his sending-off in the Spanish Supercopa win over Real Madrid last week.

Atletico midfielder Raul Garcia - who was called up by Spain on Friday - told his side's fans not to read too much into their draw with Rayo.

He said: "Several times last season it was also said the team wasn't doing so well physically and we showed that wasn't true. The fans also have to realise that we had two very tough games in the week (against Real Madrid).

"We played very well in the first half (against Rayo) and could have finished the match off, but for some reason or other we didn't. The intensity fell in the second half and that's normal.

"There's a lot of games at the start of the season. It's not easy to play them all at the same tempo, but if we'd scored in the first half we would be talking differently."