The leader measures his strength against Athletic without Vinícius
Ancelotti’s men receive the Basque team, which defends its fourth place before the Cup final
MADRID, 30 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid, solid leader of LaLiga EA Sports, receives this Sunday at the Santiago Bernabéu without the suspended Vinícius the excited Athletic Club (9:00 p.m./DAZN), which is looking to settle in the white coliseum, before its Copa del Rey final. in fourth place to guarantee their presence in the next edition of the Champions League.
Since they lost in the round of 16 of the ‘KO’ tournament against Atlético de Madrid, the Madrid team has gone 12 games without knowing defeat – eight wins and four draws -, numbers that allowed them to seal their place in the Champions League quarter-finals. ‘ and establish themselves at the top of the leaderboard.
With their victories just before the international break against Celta (4-0) and Osasuna (2-4), Carlo Ancelotti’s men reached 72 points, six more than FC Barcelona and eight ahead of Girona, who have given up in the fight for LaLiga. Now, the Catalans already seem to be the only rival for a Real Madrid that is heading towards the title.
This Sunday will be one of the last nine obstacles that separate them from the league trophy, all before a new break that will lead to the first of the two confrontations that will measure them against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and that, surely, will serve to Evaluate your season.
In the first of these commitments he will not be able to count on the Brazilian Vinícius, who must complete his cycle and who will foreseeably be replaced by another pure ‘9’ like Joselu, although Brahim Díaz could be another option to accompany Rodrygo up front.
Neither Thibaut Courtois nor David Alaba will be available for this Sunday’s duel, where Éder Militao will be, recovered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that has kept him in dry dock since, precisely, the match in the first round against Athletic Club.
Despite the Brazilian’s recovery, Ancelotti will not start him and could bet on either Nacho or the Frenchman Aurélien Tchouaméni to accompany the German Antonio Rüdiger in the center of defense. If the Madrid native plays, the Frenchman would form in the center of the field; If Tchouaméni does it, it will be his compatriot Eduardo Camavinga who plays in the middle alongside Toni Kroos and Fede Valverde.
The other great return to the white eleven is that of the Englishman Jude Bellingham, the Madrid team’s top scorer – with 20 goals in all competitions – and who has already served the two-game suspension for his expulsion in Mestalla.
Opposite, Athletic will have to put aside the euphoria for the cup final, a title that they aspire to achieve 40 years after the last time, and focus on the domestic competition. Next Saturday RCD Mallorca awaits them at La Cartuja in Seville, but first they will try to attack a stadium in which they have not won since 2005.
The victory against Deportivo Alavés (2-0) on the last day, the third in a row with points, allowed the Basque team to rise to fourth place, displacing an Atlético de Madrid that is now fifth, just one point away from its 56. Thus, they will need to add at the Bernabéu to not give themselves any chance of overtaking a Colchonero team that plays at home against Villarreal on Monday.
To do this, Ernesto Valverde’s men cling to their most reliable weapon: defensive solidity. They have not conceded in any of their last four matches between the Cup and LaLiga, in which they have instead scored seven goals, and they are the second team with the fewest goals scored in the championship (26) only behind, precisely, their rival this Sunday ( twenty).
Now, ‘Txingurri’, who will have all his men available, will have to decide if he plays with his usual eleven or if he opts for rotations to reserve some of his players for next week’s final. The change that does seem certain is the entry of Julen Agirrezabala for Unai Simón, with the aim of giving him minutes for the Cup, a competition where the young man is a starter.
DATASHEET.
–POSIBLE ALIGNMENTS.
REAL MADRID: Lunin; Carvajal, Rüdiger, Nacho, Mendy; Tchouaméni, Kroos, Valverde; Bellingham, Rodrygo and Joselu.
ATHLETIC CLUB: Agirrezabala; De Marcos, Vivian, Yeray, Lekue; Prados, Vesga, Sancet; Iñaki Williams, Nico Williams and Cruzeta.
–REFEREE: Alberola Rojas (C.Castellano-manchego).
–Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.