Atletico Madrid is taking on Athletic Bilbao in the Cop Del Rey and the match will be streaming online and comes on Thursday at 3 pm ET and the match has big implications and is the quarterfinals of the tournament and comes after Madrid won against Valencia in the last match and they are coming into the game after a draw in La Liga Espagne Primera División play.
The club comes in tied with Barcelona with 51 points and 16 wins on the season and they are just one point ahead of Real Madrid and those three clubs are at the top and no one else is close right now at the top of the table. Barcelona has remained in the top of the table despite losing Lionel Messi for a long period of time, but he is back now and the club has remained in the top part of the standings and now they have Real Madrid to worry about as well.
Cristiano Ronaldo comes into this stretch after winning the Ballon d'Or this season and now the top three teams will fight it out. Madrid comes in after draws in La Liga and a matchup in the Copa and the club now has matches coming up against AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League as well as against Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid.
Check here for the Atletico Madrid Copa Del Rey coverage.
Here is some old news about the Spanish National team playing in Madrid later in the year and Atletico Madrid gets its chance to get going on Thursday in the Copa Del Rey and here is more from Reuters.com.
Spain's final friendly before coach Vicente del Bosque names his World Cup squad will be against Italy at Atletico Madrid's Calderon stadium on March 5, the world and European champions said on Friday.
The match will be the 33rd meeting between the two heavyweights, with 10 wins for Italy, nine for Spain and 13 draws, the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) said on the national team's website.
It will also be a chance for Del Bosque to assess the form of Atletico's Brazil-born striker Diego Costa for the first time and see how he gels with the rest of the squad.
Top scorer in La Liga this season with 19 goals, Costa has committed to playing for his adopted country and Del Bosque called him up for November's friendlies against Equatorial Guinea and South Africa.
However, he had to withdraw due to injury and was replaced by Juventus striker Fernando Llorente.
Spain have had the upper hand over the Italians in recent competitive meetings, although they lost 2-1 in a friendly in Bari in August 2011.
They knocked Italy out of last year's Confederations Cup in a shootout, thrashed them 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final and also eliminated them on penalties in the Euro 2008 quarter-finals on the way to winning the tournament.
Spain begin the defense of their world title at this year's finals in Brazil against Group B rivals Netherlands, who they beat 1-0 in the 2010 final, in Salvador on June 13.
They play Chile in Rio De Janeiro on June 18 and Australia in Curitiba five days later.
(Reuters)
