Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa has revealed that he cannot wait to face Real Madrid at the Vicente Calderon this weekend.

Diego Simeone's side enter the match on the back of a 3-0 defeat to Osasuna on Sunday, but could return to the summit of La Liga with three points on their own patch.

"I'm looking forward to this match. After the last one ended, I started to think about this one. I hope the referee's don't influence the match. There are some referees who abuse their power, but they are allowed to make mistakes because they're human," he told reporters.

"I think every match is like a final. This derby is very important, we need to win it if we want to stay in the fight. Madrid is Madrid, we all know what a great team they are. They have a big game ahead of them this week, but our sole focus is preparing well for this match.

"We have to be ourselves. We have to be strong and attentive because they are in a good run of form. It's a very important game but we can't lose hope of winning La Liga just for one game."

"If we lose to Real Madrid, things will be difficult but not impossible. If we play how we know we can, we're back in the fight. We'll fight like it was our last match."

Costa has scored 27 goals this season.