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Atlético de Madrid face a brutal October after the international break
Atleti will have to play six matches in 21 days
Rubén Uría runs through Atlético's demanding fixture list after the international break
Rubén Uría runs through what awaits Atlético after the international break: Mendizorroza, a Manchester United game with no margin for error, Stuttgart, Levante, Bayern and Barça on 8 November. A seriously tough start to the season.
Having weighed up the good form Atlético took into the international break, Rubén Uría lays out what comes next. And he has a warning: watch out.
On Saturday, an away trip to Vitoria. On Tuesday, Manchester United at home, a game in which there is no longer any room for slip-ups. Then, on Saturday again, Espanyol; after that the trip to Stuttgart, a difficult ground in the Champions League and with no margin for error left; that is followed by Depor at home, then Levante away, Bayern Munich at the Metropolitano and, on Sunday 8 November, Barça. Hardly a gentle run.
One of the panellists jokes by asking whether the toughest of the lot will be the Levante game. Uría insists he does not want to keep harping on about the fixture list, but Atlético's is a brutal one: people will talk about an unbalanced schedule, he says, but the start Atlético have been handed is not one others get. It is what it is.