Real Madrid -Gastheer Leganes in the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday at 21:00 CEST, knowing that a victory will move them back on points with Barcelona on top of La Liga. Leganes has defeated both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona this season, but have struggled more against Los Blancos.
What seems certain is that Leganes goes with a back of five and a more experimental front line. Marca says that this will mean that Oscar Rodriguez will lead the border between Juan Cruz and Dani Raba, while Diario as believes that Raba is going through the middle with Darko Brasanac who comes from the left. A five at the back and one at the front seem to be certainties.
There is less certainty about how Carlo Ancelotti will approach it, with Ferland Mendy, Thibaut Courtois, Dani Ceballos, Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao with injury. Ancelotti confirmed that he hoped to have Courtois, Mendy and Ceballos back for their Champions League equal game against Arsenal, but Los Blancos also has the return leg of their Copa del Rey Semi-final against Real Sociedad to think about.
Marca is the feeling that he will try to rest more of his players, with Vinicius Junior, Aurelien Tchouameni and Antonio Rudiger all starting from the couch. That is why Fede Valverde would return to the starting XI and again to midfield, despite a tiring journey to Bolivia in midweek with Uruguay. Diario as the feeling that Valverde will get that rest, where Luka Modric replaces him.
The first meeting between the two parties saw Los Blancos running out of comfortable 3-0 winners at Butarque, but the second was a much tighter meeting in the Copa del Rey and finished 3-2 to Los Blancos. Although that was a heavily rotated side of Carlo Ancelotti, and on this occasion he has the young defender Diego Aguado back in the team as a potential option to let some of his starters rest.
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