Real Madrid prepares to take on Girona tonight in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals as they look to continue forward in this competition.
Great news arrived at the Los Merengues camp during the week as Toni Kroos, Marcos Llorente, and Mariano Diaz were all able to train with the team but the latter has not been called up in the squad list. Karim Benzema is available for selection as well after it has been confirmed that he will not need surgery for his injured finger.
I personally do not expect to see Santiago Solari make a lot of changes for the upcoming match as he knows that this is the one competition that the team realistically has a chance of winning.
Being ten points behind first place in La Liga coupled with FC Barcelona’s current form makes it very difficult to see winning the league as a realistic option.
As for the UEFA Champions League, Los Blancos haven’t really given us fans enough hope to make us believe that they can really go far in the tournament either. Therefore, the Copa del Rey can and will be taken seriously by Solari and we have to hope the squad follows that mentality as well.
On paper, this may look like an easy game but that isn’t the case. Girona is playing above expectations and has had some memorable moments during the season so far as they currently find themselves in 12th place in La Liga.
They’ll be visiting the Santiago Bernabéu tonight looking for a huge upset or at least have something solid that they can take over to the second-leg.
Real Madrid will have to be switched on and fight with the same determination that they had earlier in the week against Sevilla, where we witnessed one of their best performances of the whole season so far.
Predicted Starting Lineup:
Thibaut Courtois, Alvaro Odriozola, Nacho Fernandez, Sergio Ramos, Sergio Reguilon, Casemiro, Luka Modric, Dani Ceballos, Lucas Vazquez, Vinicius Junior, Karim Benzema