By Andreas Vou (@AndreasVou89)

With Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid eight and nine points adrift of La Liga leaders FC Barcelona, many are billing Saturday’s derby as the battle for second place, but there is far more at stake than league positions.

In any other circumstance, it would seem strange to assume that the league title race was over with twelve games remaining but with Barça unbeaten in their last 34 matches, seeing the Catalans lose a quarter of their remaining games seems slightly imaginative. 

Therefore this derby has a rather subdued build-up to it, unlike other years where the fate of titles, both home and broad, have hung on this very fixture. 

Both bosses shared contrasting views about their side’s chances of winning the league in their pre-match conferences with Barça are so far ahead and so little of the season left, though neither spoke with any real conviction.

However, the pre-match pressure should heavily lean on one side of the battle; Real Madrid have to see this game as an absolutely must win, not in order to maintain any faint hopes of winning the title, but to restore local pride and begin to reassert some dominance in the capital as their once-quiet neighbors have become their bully in recent years.

Up until not very long ago, facing Atletico would be synonymous with an easy victory for Real Madrid. How things have changed. After failing to beat Madrid for 14 years, the tide has dramatically turned since 2013 when Atletico earned a 0-1 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu and, to everyone’s surprise, went on to win the league.

It marked a dramatic shift in the city and, against all odds, it has continued. Atletico are unbeaten in their last five league games against Madrid, and if Madrid fail to beat their rivals on Saturday, it will mark the first time since the late 1960s that they have not recorded a home league win over Los Rojiblancos for three straight seasons.

Zidane knows all about this fixture, playing for Madrid at the time when the Merengues used to toil with their rivals. For the legendary Frenchman, it is an opportunity to score some vital browny points with both the ever-demanding president Florentino Perez and the equally short-fused home faithful.

The 43-year-old, in his pre-match press conference, attempted to play down the notion that the title would be over for his side should they not secure victory, but deep down he must know that it would, realistically speaking, indeed be true. 

From Atletico’s viewpoint, failure to win would certainly prove a major dent in their title hopes, especially having dropped points in three of their last five games. Nevertheless, their pre-season expectations do not compare to those of their rivals.

Manager Diego Simeone said it leading up to the game, and perhaps it was more to relieve his side of any unnecessary nerves, but third place would be a successful campaign for Atletico so as long as they remain on course for direct Champions League qualification, not all would be lost.

Plenty has been made this week in Spain of ex-Real Madrid hero Guti’s comments that no Atletico player would make into his former side’s starting lineup. Madrid-based sports newspaper AS then followed up with a study on how Real’s squad costs double than that of Atletico’s.

Yet cost is one thing and value is another so while Madrid still dominate in terms of superior salaries and price tags, their latest displays against their rivals have been poor.

The hopes of winning the league title for the moment look slim for both sides but a victory for the home team is much more of a necessity than for the visitors given the recent history between the two.