Atletico Madrid kick off their pre-season campaign on Saturday with a trip to El Burgo de Osma to take on Numancia in the now-annual Memorial Jesus Gil y Gil.
The clash is the first of four pre-season games scheduled for Diego Simeone's side, followed by a meeting with Real Oviedo and a trip to Japan and China for friendlies against Sagan Tosu and Shanghai SIPG in early August.
Following an intense period of transfer-market activity for Los Colchoneros, Saturday's outing is the club's first opportunity to showcase its new signings, with fans eager to see Jackson Martinez, Luciano Vietto, Yannick Carrasco and Stefan Savic in action.
Atletico will also be striving for a hat-trick of victories in this memorial game, having won the encounters in 2013 and 2014.
Date: Saturday, July 25
Time: 6 p.m. BST / 1 p.m. EDT / 7 p.m. local
Location: El Burgo de Osma, Spain
TV Info and Live Stream: Currently there is no broadcast information available for this match. We will update this page if and when that information is provided.
Simeone has a full squad available to him for this meeting with Numancia, and history has shown us that he's prepared to use his strongest lineup in this annual clash even if it is only a pre-season game.
Last year, the Argentinian deployed an XI featuring Diego Godin, Miranda, Juanfran, Guilherme Siqueira, Mario Suarez, Gabi, Tiago, Koke, Arda Turan, Raul Garcia and Mario Mandzukic, the only unfamiliar face being goalkeeper Yassine Bounou. The year before, the team was much the same, also seeing starts from Diego Costa, Filipe Luis and Thibaut Courtois.
As such, we can expect Atletico Madrid's strongest lineup on Saturday, as Simeone looks to build chemistry and cohesion quickly ahead of the 2015-16 season.
Below, we've made our prediction for what that lineup might look like.
Predicted Lineup
Players to Watch
Naturally, all eyes will be on Jackson Martinez in El Burgo de Osma.
Atletico's €35 million marquee summer signing, the Colombian continues a long linage of fine strikers to wear the red and white, following Fernando Torres, Diego Forlan, Sergio Aguero, Radamel Falcao and Costa.
A prolific goalscorer, Martinez topped the league scoring charts in all three of the seasons he spent at Porto and cracked the 20-goal barrier on each occasion. In total, he netted 92 goals in 132 games for the Portuguese outfit.
Strong, powerful and dynamic, the 28-year-old is very much how Simeone likes his primary forwards, and hopes are high for Martinez to lead a strong title charge for Atletico this season.
The other man to keep a close eye on is midfield star, Koke.
This off-season, Simeone has spoken of Atleti's need for a "new stimulus" in an interview with AS (h/t Football Espana), explaining that Koke will now move from his position on the left to the central-midfield pivot—the position he now plays for Spain under Vicente del Bosque.
The idea is to sharpen the team's ball movement, giving the dynamic Spaniard a greater influence and taking the emphasis away from the reliable but unspectacular pairing of Gabi and Tiago.
Saturday's meeting with Numancia will be our first chance to see that plan in action.
