It's kind of hard not to overlook tomorrow's game as the truly big game is next week but the boys in white will have to put Schalke out of their minds as Elche roll into the Bernabeu for what should be a fairly comfortable game for our favorite squad.
Elche, which was promoted to the Primera division just this season, currently sits in 14th place in the league and just aren't that good of a team. If you recall, Real needed a 96th minute PK to beat Elche in their first meeting but that was back in September when Carlo's boys were playing some very weak brand of football. Since then, Elche has made their way down the table as they've had serious issues with scoring goals (only 22 on the season). They're on a fairly decent streak of three draws and two wins in their last six but a loss looks to be in their future tomorrrow.
Elche's style is to play out wide, specifically down the left wing (they basically ignore the middle of the pitch). They're not a very good offensive team as evidenced by the fact that a whopping 50 percent of their shots come from outside the box and their shot accuracy sitting at an underwhelming 43 percent. Coro is their key offensive threat with four goals to his name, but their arguably best player is 34-year-old Edu Alcabar who has chipped in with three goals of his own. Elche is also really bad at keeping possession (47.4 percent) and making anything substantial out of it (74.9 pass success, 3.7 shots on target per game). They're somehow miraculously holding teams to only 11 shots per game, which is fourth best in the league, but I would be shocked if RM don't come close to doubling that amount.
Even with Modric, Ramos and CR being out for this match, Madrid should have enough to win the three points. When you consider that Elche has only won two out of their 11 away games this season and conceded 23 goals in the process, we might be able to see some youngsters get some late minutes tomorrow. My prediction is 3-0 in favor of Real Madrid.
Your thoughts?