The business end of Atlético Madrid’s season begins Sunday night, when los colchoneros welcome Deportivo La Coruña to A Stadium Called Wanda for the first time.

The race for second place has well and truly heated up, as Real Madrid’s 3-0 win over relegation candidates Las Palmas on Saturday brought the reigning champions to within one point of Atlético. But even a banged-up Atleti will have to like their chances playing their own relegation candidates. Clarence Seedorf’s Deportivo side has scored two goals in the past seven games and find themselves eight points from safety.

Atlético were hit hard by the so-called “FIFA virus” over the international break and will not be able to call upon José Giménez or Šime Vrsaljko, while Diego Costa has only just made the bench. In addition, Vitolo and Antoine Griezmann are serving one-game suspensions. Stefan Savić will make his first appearance for nearly two months while Atleti B right back Carlos Isaac is expected to debut. The 19-year-old has moved swiftly up the youth ranks and signed a new contract to 2020 earlier this month.

Possible XI

Oblak; Carlos Isaac, Savić, Godín, Lucas; Thomas; Gabi, Saúl, Koke, Correa; Gameiro.

Predicted scoreline

Atlético Madrid 1-0 Deportivo La Coruña.

How to watch

Date: April 1, 2018

Location: Estadio Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain

Kickoff time: 20:45 CEST, 19:45 GMT/BST, 2:45 p.m. EST, 11:45 a.m. PST

SB Nation opposition blog: N/A

Available TV/streaming: beIN LaLiga (Spain), Sky Sports Football, NOW TV (United Kingdom), beIN Sports, fuboTV (United States), NTV+ Sport Online, Match TV Football 3 (Russia), QQ Sports Live (China)

For more listings, head over to livesoccertv.com.