Match Preview

Real Madrid return to the Bernabéu to take on Eibar after a disappointing loss against Valencia earlier in the week. Real put up a very poor road performance on Wednesday and now they’re looking to bounce back from it.

These two clubs met in Eibar back in November, where Real suffered a 3-0 loss. Eibar find themselves 11th in the league table while Real are firmly in third.

While a win doesn’t mean much standings-wise anymore for Real, they still want to swing back a positive momentum shift after a lackluster effort against Valencia.

The season clock is ticking down and with not much left to play for outside of the Champions League spot, it’s important for the club to finish with as many wins in the matches remaining as possible to end on a high note.

Injuries/Suspensions

The injury list doesn’t see much change from Wednesday’s, still including Courtois, Vinicius, and Dani Carvajal.

There are no injuries or suspensions from Eibar’s side on Saturday.

The lone suspension for Real Madrid is Marcelo, who accumulated too many yellows against Valencia this past week.

Starting XIs

Real Madrid

Navas; Odriozola, Nacho, Varane, Reguilón; Modric, Valverde, Isco; Bale, Asensio, Benzema

Obviously, the most notable change in the lineup in today’s match is the combination at midfield that Zidane is going with. Kroos, who is not reportedly injured, is the notable omission here. He did not look very good against Valencia so this could be the reason why Zidane decided to exclude him. And, it’ll be interesting to see how the trio that Zidane is rolling with get along.

Bale is also starting in this match instead of Vazquez. Real’s offense against Valencia was severely lacking and now Zidane is trying at least a little difference up top to see if he can get a better result against Eibar.

Eibar

Dmitrovic; Cucurella, Oliveira, Ramis, Cote; Escalante, Jordan, Sergio Alvarez, De Blasis, Leon; Sergi

Prediction

Real Madrid-Eibar 2-1

There has to be some sort of motivation coming home for Real Madrid to put up a much better performance against Eibar than they did against Valencia. It starts with the offense, but it was also a big defensive problem as well conceding too many counter attacks.

They need the win just to shift things back their way and get an even better control of the third spot in the league table. And, most of all as previously mentioned, they just want to close out the remainder of the season with as many positive results as possible.