Real Betis vs Real Madrid – La Liga Match Preview
By Alex McVey
Real Madrid travel to Seville to take on Real Betis. With one eye on the Champions League, expect Zidane to make rotations. Here’s your match preview.
Real Madrid’s trip to face Real Betis comes at an odd time. On the one hand, Madrid are in the middle of a historically bad season, struggling to maintain the Champions League places in La Liga and having been eliminated early from the Copa del Rey. On the other hand, Real Madrid fans finally have something to cheer about, having just come off of a big win at home against PSG in the Champions League.
Zidane will be faced with the precarious challenge of trying to balance squad rotations ahead of PSG with the need for Madrid to still take La Liga seriously lest they slip out of the Champions League spots. Madrid currently sit in fourth, three points ahead of fifth place Sevilla. While it’s true that Madrid do have two matches in hand, it would be foolish to take anything for granted in a La Liga campaign that’s been full of awful surprises for Los Blancos.
As Marca report, Real Madrid have a tricky schedule ahead of them, with four matches over the course of ten days. Madrid play their make-up match against Leganes in midweek. That means Zidane is planning on a heavy rotation schedule to keep his powder dry ahead of the must-win PSG second leg.
Mateo Kovacic is expected to start in place of Toni Kroos in the midfield. Kroos suffered a sprained knee during the match against PSG, so he’ll probably be rested as long as possible. Kovacic will be looking to impress, as he’s not gotten as many starting opportunities as many Madrid fans have hoped he would this season.
Real Betis currently sit in ninth place in La Liga, smack dab in the middle of the table. That should be a very winnable match, but Madrid have struggled against all varieties of teams this season. And Madrid struggled against Betis at the beginning of the season as well, losing in stoppage time to a last minute goal by Sanabria.
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Let’s hope Real Madrid can do better this time. Things finally seem to be coming together for Zidane’s men after a really rocky start to the year. This will be a good chance for the substitutes to prove that they should be in Madrid’s long term plans, regardless of what happens at the end of the season.