Match Preview

Venue: Stadio Olimpico; Rome, Italy

Time: 8 PM CEST (Local Time)

Real Madrid will participate in their final friendly of their preseason tour on Sunday night in Rome against home side AS Roma. This is of course Real’s final time for a full match before their LaLiga season kicks off next Saturday against Celta.

These two clubs met back in the Champions League group stage in the latter half of 2018, where Real took both fixtures with victories in each.

Real are coming off the 1-0 win over Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday and Roma are coming off their own Wednesday fixture against Athletic, where they drew 2-2.

This is also a good chance for Real to get some final full-match practice time in before the matches actually start counting next Saturday. They’ve been better these last two preseason friendlies compared to how they fared in the International Champions Cup.

Injuries/Suspensions

As of the time of previewing here, neither side have released the squad list for this match.

However, we do know injury list for Real Madrid remains the same with Marco Asensio, Ferland Mendy, and Brahim Diaz all still out.

Roma have no injuries listed to their club.

There are no suspensions for either club in this final preseason match.

Potential XIs

Real Madrid

Navas; Carvajal, Varane, Militão, Marcelo; Modric, Casemiro, Valverde; Vincius, Hazard, Benzema

With just under a week until the Spanish season kicks off, this is Real’s last chance to get their squad some full-match preparation. Real played Red Bull on Wednesday, so there could be some changes to Zidane’s starting squad in Rome. This is where players like Navas, Modric, and Valverde could see the pitch for the first half at least.

Zidane went with a 3-4-2-1 formation against Salzburg, it will be interesting to see if he goes back to a 4-3-3 formation against Roma or if he sticks with what worked in Austria. Real were able to get the 1-0 victory and Benzema and Hazard were a constant threat in that lineup.

Roma

López; Florenzi, Mancini, Juan, Kolarov; Cristante, Diawara; Ünder, Zaniolo, Kluivert; Dzeko

Prediction

Roma—Real Madrid 2-4

Real Madrid are most likely ready for the new season to kick off already, but it certainly is nice to have one last friendly to make sure the squad is fully ready.

With the Premier League already kicking off this weekend, it’s just about time for the rest of the European league matches to start counting for points as well. Luckily, there’s less than a week until that happens for Real and LaLiga.

It’s been a preseason of lows and now highs the last couple of matches, hopefully Real can finish on this recent high note in Rome. Real kick off the season at the Balaídos next weekend, so it’s important they’re completely set for an opening road match. They get that chance here at Stadio Olimpico against Roma.