French striker Antoine Griezmann was a major absentee for Atletico Madrid against his parent club Barcelona in the Spanish La Ligaat the weekend. Antoine Griezmann is currently on loan at Spanish champions Atletico Madrid from Barcelona having joined the capital club at the start of the season.

Griezmann was unable to feature against his parent club due to a right thigh injury sustained last month. The French World Cup winner initially picked up the thigh problem during the defeat to city rivals Real Madrid in the league in December. Antoine Griezmann returned to action from the injury as a second half substitute during the Copa Del Rey win over Rayo Vallecano at the start of last month. The attacker had to go off in the second half due to the recurrence of the right thigh injury. He has not played since being subbed off during the 5-0 drubbing of Rayo Vallecano. Griezmann was responsible for the fourth goal of the Copa Del Rey game.

Atletico Madrid struggled in attacker against Barcelona when the two teams met in the league on Sunday without the firepower of Griezmann. In the end, the Spanish La Liga defending champions were beaten 4-2 by their hosts despite scoring the first goal of the game through Belgian national team winger Yannick-Ferreira Carrasco. The opening goal of the game arrived on eight minutes and the second goal soon followed with Jordi Alba netting the equaliser for Barcelona on ten minutes. Gavi then scored for Barcelona on 21 minutes as the home team took the lead for the first time in the game. Uruguayan central defender Ronald Araujo extended the lead for Barcelona with two first half minutes left on the clock. At the start of the second half, veteran Brazilian right-back Dani Alves scored the fourth Barcelona goal and would later receive his marching orders for a poor challenge. By the time Alves was off, Luis Suarez had scored the last goal of the game.

Barcelona were able to move above Atletico Madrid on the league table with their 4-2 win over the La Liga holders at the weekend.