MADRID, 10 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid will begin this Wednesday at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium (8:00 p.m.) its ‘playoff’ for access to the group stage of the 2023-2024 Women’s Champions League against Norwegian team Valerenga, a rival against whom it hopes to assert its favorite and local status.
The Madrid team starts as favorites to get the ticket in this tie and join FC Barcelona, current champion, among the 16 teams that will fight for the throne of the Blaugrana team starting on November 14, but for this they should not trust a Valerenga with a lot of competitive shooting and who will want to bring the excitement to the return in his stadium next week.
The current runner-up of the F League and the Queen’s Cup seeks its presence for the third consecutive season among the continental elite. So far, their start to the campaign has been positive with four wins in their four league games, although in the last one they almost dropped points at home against bottom team Villarreal, who only lost due to a controversial goal in the 90th minute.
Alberto Toril, coach of Real Madrid, thought about this first match against the Norwegian team and rotated almost all of his lines against the Castellón team, leaving players like Tere Abelleira, Athenea del Castillo, Linda Caicedo, Kathellen Sousa and Naomie on the bench. Feller, who are making headlines this Wednesday.
The Madrid team will try to show its usual strength in its stadium, where it usually concedes little, and take advantage of the experience acquired in the previous two years against rivals with a lot of potential such as the French PSG or the English Chelsea and Manchester City to avoid difficulties before to travel to Norway.
Real Madrid already knows what it’s like to face a Norwegian team since last season they were paired in this same round with Rosenborg, whom they eliminated with authority by a 5-1 aggregate score, supported by the 0-3 in the first leg. .
Valerenga, which is second in its league, comes with much more competitive shooting since it had to overcome the previous round against the Belarusian Minsk (1-3) and the Scottish Celtic (2-2 and a pass on penalties). The Nordic team, which contributed goalkeeper Guro Pettersen, winger Thea Bjelde and forward Karina Saevik in the last World Cup, has just won 4-2 at Arna-Bjornar last weekend and will surely bet on taking refuge near their area and leave the initiative to the locals to try to surprise them on the counterattack.