La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid will travel to the Estadio Martinez Valero for Wednesday's Copa del Rey clash against second-tier Elche.
The hosts swept past Las Palmas in their last cup outing, while Atletico secured their place in the last 16 with a narrow win over Marbella.
Match preview
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Elche may be the obvious underdogs for Wednesday's cup fixture, but they may fancy their chances of pulling off an upset after winning each of their last four competitive matches without conceding.
That winning run includes a commanding 4-0 victory in their Copa del Rey third-round tie against La Liga's Las Palmas, courtesy of goals from Rodrigo Mendoza, David Affengruber, Jose Salinas and Nicolas Fernandez.
Los Franjiverdes went on to claim another win in Sunday's league clash against Real Zaragoza, with Elbasan Rashani netting a 93rd-minute winner to move his side into the automatic promotion places.
As a result of that narrow victory, Elche have now avoided defeat in each of their last 10 competitive matches (W7, D3), keeping clean sheets in seven of those encounters.
Wednesday's hosts can also take confidence from the fact that they have won nine of their previous 12 home games (D2, L1), including each of their last five outings at the Estadio Martinez Valero.
Los Franjiverdes will hope that home advantage can help them reach the Copa del Rey quarter-finals for the first time since 1968-69 when they went all the way to the final before being beaten by Athletic Club.
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Like their hosts, Atleti will head into the midweek cup fixture in high spirits after winning each of their last 14 competitive matches since they lost to Real Betis at the end of October.
Atletico kicked off that winning run with a 2-0 victory over Vic, before they swept past Cacereno by a 3-1 scoreline in December's second-round tie to set up their most recent cup clash with Marbella.
Diego Simeone's side were unable to blow away their third-tier opponents, settling for a narrow 1-0 victory thanks to Antoine Griezmann's 16th-minute effort.
Atletico went on to record another 1-0 win in Saturday's home league match, with Julian Alvarez scoring the decisive goal to send his team to the top of the standings, leaving Los Colchoneros one point above second-placed Real Madrid and six points clear of Barcelona in third position.
While they are dreaming of winning their 12th La Liga title, Atletico will also have aspirations of lifting the Copa del Rey for the first time since 2012-13.
They will be confident of reaching the quarter-finals for a third consecutive season, having won 10 of their previous 12 competitive games against Elche (D1, L1), although they will be mindful of the fact that they lost 1-0 in their most recent meeting in May 2023.
Team News
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Elche boss Eder Sarabia may be without the services of forward Oscar Plano, who has missed the last three matches with a muscle injury.
Pedro Bigas could retain his place after coming into the side to feature in central defence with Affengruber in Sunday's win over Zaragoza.
Mendoza and Agustin Alvarez are pushing for recalls after dropping down to the Elche bench at the weekend.
As for the visitors, they are unable to call upon defender Jose Maria Gimenez, who is continuing to work his way back from an injury which has kept him out of the first two matches of 2025.
Juan Musso will feature between the posts after appearing in the first three rounds of the cup, while Simeone could be tempted to make further changes in a bid to keep his side fresh amid a busy schedule.
The Atleti boss could hand starting opportunities to the likes of Alex Witsel, Koke, Marcos Llorente, Samuel Lino, Angel Correa and Alexander Sorloth.
Elche possible starting lineup:
San Roman; A. Nunez, Affengruber, Bigas, Salinas; Febas, Castro; Fernandez; Mendoza, Santiago; Alvarez
Atletico Madrid possible starting lineup:
Musso; Molina, Witsel, Le Normand, Galan; Llorente, Barrios, Koke, Lino; Sorloth, Correa
We say: Elche 0-2 Atletico Madrid
The two sides will both enter Wednesday's fixture full of confidence thanks to their respective unbeaten runs, but we think that Atleti's La Liga quality will prove to be a decisive factor, which is why we believe that they will become the first team to beat Elche at the Estadio Martinez Valero since Huesca in August.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
