For the fourth time this season, Real Madrid will face Girona after winning the past three encounters – twice in the Copa del Rey and once in La Liga – as they prepare for what should be a straight-forward match.
Los Merengues head into this match in the middle of an extremely hectic schedule but will be happy that they’ll have the rest of the week off as their next game will be on Sunday the 24th against Levante.
After coming out with a string of good results, Real Madrid struggled to get the win against Ajax in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 but they’ll have to shift their focus to Girona now as anything less than a win could prove to be disastrous.
After Atletico Madrid’s win this week against Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid will have to get all three points if they want to return to second place and keep the heat on FC Barcelona.
📝 Our 20-man squad for tomorrow’s #RMLiga match against @GironaFC! #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/Zgezwx9UIM
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) February 16, 2019
There were concerns that Raphael Varane and Mariano Diaz wouldn’t be able to make the match, but both players have been called up by Santiago Solari and if they’re both fit, I think there is a strong possibility to see them both start as the manager will have to be looking into making some rotations. With players such as Karim Benzema needing to get as much rest as possible, Mariano could be called upon to start.
Luka Modric is one of the players who won’t be available as the Croatian is suspended for this match after accumulating too many yellow cards in league play.
This shouldn’t be a problem for Solari as Modric could really use some time off after the last couple weeks. The only other player that will miss this match is Marcos Llorente who is still on course to return from the injury he suffered against FC Barcelona in the next week or so.
With all the talk of resting players, I don’t expect the manager to come out with major changes since his team will have a week off before their next La Liga match.
It’s difficult to really predict how Solari is planning to line his team up tomorrow but I’m going to go with the bold prediction that the Argentine will be benching Gareth Bale and Vinicius Junior and starting with Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio in their place.
I think Benzema will start but Mariano will definitely be coming in at some point if he’s fit while Dani Ceballos is expected to start in Modric’s place. That is unless Solari wants a little bit more defensive security in which case he may go with Federico Valverde as an option there.
Predicted Lineup:
Thibaut Courtois, Alvaro Odriozola, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Carlos Casemiro, Dani Ceballos, Toni Kroos, Lucas Vazquez, Marco Asensio, Karim Benzema