After a lengthy international break, Real Madrid Club de Futbol returns to La Liga action as they travel to Balaidos to lock horns against Celta Vigo.
Carlo Ancelotti’s players returned fully fit from the international break with no injury concerns whatsoever. Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militao, and Vinicius Junior have recovered and Kylian Mbappe is ‘close to 100%’. However, Dani Carvajal is ruled out for the rest of the season after the Spaniard suffered a freak injury and underwent surgery afterwards.
Carlo Ancelotti reiterated that he has not asked for any new signings – but if the club find a player whom they find as the perfect fit, he would not refuse. The Italian manager also believes that Lucas Vazquez and even Eder Militao can slot into the right back position and David Alaba’s return will boost the side in defence.
Moving further, with Dani Ceballos making a return, Los Blancos have all their midfielders available for this fixture against Celta Vigo. They also enjoyed a decent international break – Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga and Arda Güler scored for their respective national sides. Aurelien Tchouaméni captained France for the first time and the duo of Luka Modric and Fede Valverde had solid outings as well.
The midfielders know their importance in this side and would be eager to keep up this form as the next five games are against tricky opponents.
On the attacking front, Kylian Mbappe’s decision to travel to Sweden during the break was controversial to say the least but other than that, the Frenchman trained alone on the pitch while he was in Madrid – on his road to full fitness.
Vinicius Junior did not travel for the break while his Brazilian counterparts – Rodrygo and Endrick – were involved in two important victories.
The attackers would want to be more clinical in front of the goal and show the world why they are at the best club in the world.
In contrast, Celta Vigo have blown quite hot and cold this season. They sit at 9th on the table with four victories and four losses and a solitary draw.
Out of the four victories this season, the men in blue have won three of them at home. But they have not been able to beat Real Madrid at Balaidos since May 2014 – a record they would want to break.
The home side’s leading goal joint top scorer and captain, Iago Aspas is ruled out of this match due to the red card he received in the last match before the international break against Las Palmas.
That was not the only red card as midfielder Illaix Moriba was on the received end. However, even after being down to nine men, Celta managed to scrape a victory.
It is the first game after the break and the Merengues would hope to continue from where they left off, while Celta would look to break an unwanted record – it all makes for an exciting fixture.