Struggling Madrid giants face off at Wanda today
Accustomed to unrelenting success in recent seasons, both Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid enter Saturday's first ever Spanish capital derby at Atletico's new Wanda Metropolitano stadium with little room for error.
Early season struggles have left both sides eight points adrift of La Liga leaders Barcelona and four points back on a revitalised Valencia.
Twice finalists in the past four seasons, Atletico also look set for a group-stage exit in the Champions League, whilst Real also suffered thier first group-stage defeat for five years to Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month, although they should still progress to the last 16.
A large part in the downfall of both sides of the Madrid divide has been the poor form of their normally reliant source of goals in Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann.
The two went head-to-head for the Ballon d'Or last year after Real and Ronaldo's Portugal edged out Atletico and Griezmann's France in the Champions League and Euro 2016 finals respectively.
However, Ronaldo has scored just once in seven La Liga appearances so far this season.
"It's not my fault if (the ball) does not want to go in," Ronaldo told French sports newspaper L'Equipe on Thursday.
"People look at me like a goal machine, like a guy who has to score all the time."
'NO RAMOS-RONALDO RIFT'
Real coach Zinedine Zidane shrugged off reports of a dressing room rift between Sergio Ramos and Ronaldo.
Ronaldo had complained that after a few departures in the summer Real's squad was lacking experience compared to the one that claimed a La Liga and Champions League double last season.
Ramos later described those comments as "opportunistic" and Madrid-based sports daily Marca reported this week on the rising tension between Real's two most decorated players.
"The good thing is I can say truthfully that I have two players that will go down in the history of this club in Sergio and Cristiano. Both of them know what is at stake and they respect each other a lot," Zidane said on Saturday.
"They are intelligent people. They have done a lot together, won a lot together and if now and again one person thinks one way and someone else another way, there is no problem."
Griezmann's commitment has also been questioned despite the Frenchman turning his back on a move away from Spain to sign a new deal with Atletico just five months ago.
"Whoever doesn't want to be here should leave," Atletico midfielder Koke said on Thursday.
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