Accustomed
to unrelenting success in recent seasons, both Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid
enter Saturday's first ever Spanish capital derby at Atletico's new Wanda
Metropolitano stadium with little room for error.
Early season struggles have
left both sides eight points adrift of La Liga leaders Barcelona and four
points back on a revitalised Valencia.
Twice finalists in the past
four seasons, Atletico also look set for an embarrassing group-stage exit in
the Champions League, whilst Real also suffered their first group-stage defeat
for five years to Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month, although they should
still progress to the last 16.
A large part in the downfall of
both sides of the Madrid divide has been the poor form of their normally
reliant source of goals in Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann.
The two went head-to-head for
the Ballon d'Or last year after Real and Ronaldo's Portugal edged out Atletico
and Griezmann's France in the Champions League and Euro 2016 finals
respectively.
However, Ronaldo has scored
just once in seven La Liga appearances so far this season despite having 48
shots on goal.
"It's not my fault if (the
ball) does not want to go in," Ronaldo told French sports newspaper
L'Equipe on Thursday.
"People look at me like a
goal machine, like a guy who has to score all the time."