Real Madrid had a week off as they prepared for a very difficult run of matches coming up which begins with their La Liga encounter against Levante in a must-win game.
After their shocking loss to Girona last week, Real Madrid have to aim to win their upcoming matches if they want to have any chance of taking over first place. They currently trail by 12 points from league leaders Barcelona, who beat Sevilla yesterday. Win this game and the deficit is down to 9. Beat them next week in La Liga and a six point difference is definitely worth fighting for.
The last time Los Merengues played against Levante in La Liga, they suffered a 2-1 loss at the Santiago Bernabeu while Julen Lopetegui was still in charge so they’ll definitely have that in mind tonight as well.
📝 Our 21-man squad for the match against @LevanteUD! #RMLiga pic.twitter.com/bsLKkOa0nD
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) February 24, 2019
Real Madrid go into this match with practically a full squad other than Marcos Llorente who is still returning from his injury as well as Sergio Ramos who is suspended after his red card last week. Isco has been training normally with the team but hasn’t been called up to the match as Brahim Diaz finds his name on the squad list, which means he may be given a few minutes if he’s not cut before the match begins since three players will have to be cut and the expected names will be Luca Zidane, Jesus Vallejo and either Brahim or Federico Valverde. Having said that, Santiago Solari still has a very strong squad at his disposal and should be able to overcome a Levante side currently in 12th place in the league.
After trailing further behind the standings last week, I don’t see Solari making any major changes to his preferred lineup but may make a few minor tweaks. With Sergio Ramos out of the match, the manager will go with Nacho Fernandez alongside Raphael Varane with Daniel Carvajal on the right. Marcelo may get the nod ahead of Reguilon tonight with the latter probably the one taking the left-back position against Barcelona on Wednesday. Other than that, the only other question marks will be on the flanks as Solari will have to pick between Gareth Bale, Vinicius Junior, Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio.
Predicted Starting Lineup:
Thibaut Courtois, Daniel Carvajal, Raphael Varane, Nacho Fernandez, Marcelo, Carlos Casemiro, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Gareth Bale, Vinicius Junior, Karim Benzema