La Liga: Previewing Real Madrid vs. Villarreal
Real Madrid is counting the days until this season is officially over as they now have three matches left in La Liga with the first against Villarreal at the Santiago Bernabéu today.
The last time these two teams met, the match ended in a disappointing 2-2 draw at the beginning of 2019 with Raphael Varane and Karim Benzema on the score sheet that night. After Real Madrid’s disheartening performance against Rayo Vallecano last week, Zinedine Zidane will want to see some more urgency and hunger from the team.
His feeling were extremely clear during the post-match press conference even though he tried to cool things down when speaking about the upcoming match against Villarreal:
"“There are three games to go and we’ve got to go out and play them. I’m fine, the other day I was very cross, as were the players. Don’t go thinking that they were fine with things. There are times when nothing goes for you, which was the case the other day.”“The good thing, amongst the bad things we’ve been through this season, is that we’ve got a game tomorrow to show what we’re all about. Nobody will take away our desire to play football away, it’s what the players like doing and we try and do that tomorrow.”"
Everyone is expected to see a change in attitude today, but it will be difficult to continuously motivate players who have absolutely nothing to play for.
Nevertheless, Los Merengues should be able to get the three points against a Villarreal side who is currently in 15th place and only five points away from relegation.
📝 Our 19-man squad for tomorrow's #RMLiga clash against @VillarrealCF! #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/3YTHDbPbSJ
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) May 4, 2019
For the match today, Zidane has decided against calling up Dani Ceballos, Luka Modric, and Gareth Bale, while Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Odriozola, and Karim Benzema are still not fit to play with the team.
The good news in the squad list is Vinícius Júnior has been called up for the first time since his injury against Ajax in the UEFA Champions League and for the first time since Zidane’s return to the team.
Viní is expected to come off the bench as the manager will not want to take any unnecessary risks with the Brazilian youngster.
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Predicted Lineup:
Keylor Navas, Daniel Carvajal, Raphael Varane, Nacho Fernandez, Marcelo, Carlos Casemiro, Toni Kroos, Isco, Lucas Vazquez, Marco Asensio, Mariano Diaz.