Atletico Madrid take on Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup semi-final and will not be getting ahead of themselves, according to co-captain Saul Niguez.

The Super Cup, or 'Supercopa de Espana' as it's referred to in Spain, is the first piece of silverware on offer to four teams from LaLiga, with the winners and runners-up from the league and Copa del Rey selected to feature in the mini-tournament.

But for Atletico, the odds of reaching the final are stacked against them considering their atrocious head-to-head record with the Catalan giants in the past decade.

In fact, Atletico have only beaten Barcelona once in their last 16 outings with the victory coming in their Champions League quarter-final second leg back in 2016.

However, after being handed captain responsibilities at the start of this season along with Koke, Jan Oblak and Jose Gimenez, Saul insists the message for his team-mates is to keep calm and composed when they take on Barcelona on Thursday night.

'The message is always very clear, go game by game because when we've always thought about objectives in the long term, we've made mistakes and we've failed,' Saul told MARCA.

'The boss said a few years ago about not getting ahead of ourselves and it's an important message for these days, we're playing for a trophy that is important to us, having the opportunity that in previous editions you didn't have, which is what we're really excited about facing.'

At the age of 25, Saul has become a veteran at the Wanda Metropolitano having displayed brilliant leadership qualities under Diego Simeone. 

'When you say things, it's for the good of the team and you always have to know how to talk to each player in the end. You always try to find the best ways to get your message across.'

Saul, an all-action midfielder who likes to get forward but can also fill in at centre-back, has caught the eye of Manchester United with many believing he'd be the perfect candidate to replace Paul Pogba, should he leave.

However, the Spaniard's attention is solely focused on stopping Lionel Messi and Co from adding yet another title to their already-stacked trophy cabinet.

Saul explained: 'We're playing against an opponent that we know really well, we know how we can hurt them and how they can hurt us. We have to try to defend really well knowing that, although they have a very high line, we can hurt them with the people that we have.'