Atlético Madrid v FC Barcelona: The last ten years at the Vicente Calderón

 FC Barcelona return to Liga action on Saturday with what tends to be one of the toughest games of the season. They’re off to the Vicente Calderón, home of Atlético Madrid, the same place where a 1-0 win in the second-to-last game of last season secured the title in manager Luis Enrique’s first year in charge.

Despite the traditional difficulty of the fixture, the Catalans have managed to win half of their league games at the Calderón in the last decade, the other five matches resulting in four home wins and a draw. In fact, Barça are unbeaten in league encounters away to Atlético since 2009/10, when they lost 2-1, although they did go on to win the title that season.

Six goals for Messi

The most common result of the last decade has been a 2-1 victory for Barça, which happened three times in row from 2010/11 to 2012/13. And the biggest win was a stunning 6-0 for the visitors in 2007. With Frank Rijkaard on the bench, the goals that day were scored by Messi (2), Zambrotta, Eto’o, Ronaldinho and Iniesta.

In the last ten years, Barça have scored 20 goals and conceded 15 in league games away to the ‘mattress-makers’, and have kept clean sheets on both of their last two visits. Barça’s highest goalscorer in the last ten Liga games at Atlético has been Lionel Messi, with six.

Other meetings

Barça have also travelled to the Calderón four times in the last decade in other competitions, where the results have also generally been positive. In the Copa del Rey they won 3-1 in 2009 and 3-2 in 2015, and both times progressed to the next round on aggregate. In the 2013 Spanish Super Cup, a 1-1 draw was enough for Barça to win the trophy on away goals, and the only reverse came in the 2014 Champions League, Atlético winning 1-0 at home and going on to qualify for the next round with a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou.