Diego Simeone takes his Atletico Madrid squad to Barcelona on Saturday, hoping to cut into the Spanish champions’ eight point lead over ‘Los Rojiblancos’.

Second-placed Atletico appear to be in good shape. Simeone’s men registered their best away win of the season at Alaves at the end of March and have won six out of their last seven league games, keeping six cleansheets along the way.

Atletico, however, have never beaten the Catalans in the top flight since Simeone took charge in December 2011.

But this fact makes Simeone ‘super optimistic’ he told a press conference on Friday.

“The fact that we’ve never beaten them at the Nou Camp is what makes me feel super optimistic.”

“I hang on to tomorrow’s game. I don’t want to think any further because it wouldn’t be fair, it would be reckless, being eight points behind a team like Barcelona, to say something different only because people want to hear it, than what reality shows.”