Albacete vs Real Madrid Castilla match preview

Real Madrid Castilla travel to Estadio Carlos Belmonte to face Albacete Balompié at noon local time on Sunday.

This is their fifth game of the season, having won two and lost two prior to the contest. Last time around, Castilla were 2-1 victors in the game against Gimnastic de Tarragona at the Alfredo Di Stefano stadium. Two goals from Oscar Aranda sealed the deal for Castilla, who are, at the time of writing this, sitting in 12th place in the table, although having played a game less than a few teams that are ahead of them on points.

Albacete, their opponents, have an identical record to Castilla, but are in 9th place. They've scored five goals and conceded eight, three of which came against leaders Villarreal B in their last game on the 19th of September.

Castilla's season hasn't really been amazing so far. They'd be thankful for the win against Gimnastic because it brought them back into playoff contention, but they have the talent to do much better.

The team may once again be without captain Antonio Blanco, first-choice goalkeeper Toni Fuidias and left-back Miguel Gutierrez because of their call-ups for the first team's game against Villarreal.

It would make sense for Luis Lopez to replace Fuidias once again against Albacete, with Mario Gila Fuentes covering for Miguel at left-back. Castilla would surely miss their captain, but the midfield of Carlos Doctor and Ivan Morante worked out relatively well last time around. Expect them to take the pitch on Sunday as well. Peter Gonzalez should play in front of those two, covering for Arribas, who has been out due to injury. The attack of Oscar Aranda, Marvin Park and Juanmi Latasa should be enough to yield positive results.

Castilla haven't played Albacete many times. In 12 games between the two teams over the course of history, Castilla have won five, there were three draws, and Albacete came out victorious in the remaining four. The last time these two teams faced each other was back in 2016-17, a season in which Castilla defeated Albacete once, while the other game ended in a draw.

Castilla need to get this win and get some momentum going, so that things slowly start looking more and more positive for the team in terms of playoff contention. Viewers in Europe with a Footters subscription will be able to watch the game live on the Footters website. The game would not be shown on Real Madrid TV.