Tough away game for Real Madrid and coach Zinedine Zidane will most likely give his key starters another chance to play even after their disastrous performance against Girona. Does he even have a choice considering how thing the squad is right now?
Goalkeeper
Kiko Casilla will start, there’s no doubt about that. Keylor Navas is injured and Moha, who hasn’t made his debut with the first team yet will be the reserve goalkeeper in this one. Casilla is decent enough to fill Navas’ shoes while the Costa Rican keeper is injured.
Defenders
Varane is injured and that means that Achraf will be on the right wing with Nacho and Ramos in the center of the defensive line. Marcelo will be the one playing left-back. Some could argue that Zidane could deploy Vallejo alongside Ramos while Nacho plays as a right-back, but Vallejo has only played in one game this season and he ended up being sent off. Theo Hernandez could be useful off the bench if Real Madrid feel like they can play with a more counterattacking style, although it’d be risky to take Marcelo’s creativity out of the game.
Midfielders
Casemiro, Kroos and Modric will almost certainly play. That’s Zidane’s favorite midfield and Kovacic is still recovering from his injury, so it’d be shocking to see Ceballos or Marcos Llorente getting the start here considering that they have not been as relevant as most analysts and fans expected before the season kicked-off. Still, this is the line where Zidane should try to experiment more. Lucas Vazquez has not been effective this season and if Real Madrid need to score and dominate the tempo of the game they should just give Ceballos the chance to come off the bench and change the course of the game.
Attackers
Isco picked up some kind of thigh problem during the match against Girona yet he managed to complete the game. He has traveled with the rest of the squad and appears to be ready to feature in the starting lineup, although Zidane could decide to play it safe and start Marco Asensio instead if Isco is still affected by that issue. Ronaldo and Benzema will start.
HOW TO WATCH, STREAM CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Date: 11/01/2017
Time: 20:45 CET, 03:45pm EST, 12:45pm Pacific.
Venue: Wembley, London, England.
Available TV: FOX Sports 1 (USA), BT Sport 2 (UK), BeIN Sports (Spain).
Available Streaming: FOX Sports GO (USA), Fubo.TV (EVERY Real Madrid game with a high-quality and legal stream, click here to sign up and benefit from a summer discount for new members and Managing Madrid readers).