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As one would have expected, both Barcelona and Real Madrid won their games on Wednesday and, therefore, the culés still keep a four-point advantage over Los Blancos in the league table, with only eight games until the season ends. It seems a very big gap, but the return of the mid-week Champions League games will likely affect the performance of both teams and so we may get to see some surprising results.
Real Madrid will host Eibar tomorrow, at 16:00 CET, four hours before the kick-off in the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium, where Sevilla will try to beat Barça to keep track of Valencia and Atlético de Madrid in their quest for a spot in next season's Champions League. It seems, therefore, a really good chance for Real Madrid to get close to Barcelona and make their comeback a bit more likely.
As Real Madrid's appeal to Cristiano Ronaldo's yellow card was accepted, the Portuguese will play tomorrow, unlike Toni Kroos and James Rodríguez, who are banned, Gareth Bale, who has some problem on his foot, and Iker Casillas, who will be rested. Illarramendi and Jesé will start the game, as Ancelotti confirmed in the pre-match press conference.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="es"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RealMadrid?src=hash">#RealMadrid</a> Projected XI for Eibar: Keylor, Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Nacho, Illarramendi, Modric, Isco, Jesé, Ronaldo, Benzema.</p>— Lucas Navarrete (@LucasNavarreteM) <a href="https://twitter.com/LucasNavarreteM/status/586526494408736769">abril 10, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Eibar get to the Bernabéu, for the first time in history in a league game, just after having been able to break a horrible streak of eleven consecutive games without a single victory. However, their coach Gaizka Garitano trusts his players will have a good chance of getting a good result out of the Bernabéu if they work hard enough and play with the intensity that characterizes them. Not for nothing, Eibar were able to promote from Segunda B to Segunda, and then to La Liga, in two consecutive seasons, and their current team is quite similar to the one they had two years ago.
Los Blancos will need to match their rivals' intensity and get a victory that would put a lot of pressure on Barça before their hard game in Sevilla, and that would set the right mood before the Madrid derby to be played on Tuesday. Once again, there is no room for a mistake.