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An embattled Real Madrid travel to the Mendizorrotza Stadium to face a relegation-battling Alaves in La Liga after a torrid week.
The reigning Spanish champions were knocked out of the Spanish Super Cup by Athletic Bilbao, before seeing their Copa del Rey campaign halted abruptly by third-division Alcoyano.
These back-to-back cup losses have severely dented the capital side's title hopes as the La Liga crown appears to be slipping away.
Zinedine Zidane's men are four points adrift of leaders Atletico Madrid, who have two games in hand. Real Madrid have won just once from the last three games.
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Any further setbacks would allow arch-rivals Barcelona to steal a march. They've reduced the deficit to just three points, having trailed them by a mammoth seven after the El Clasico defeat in October.
Fortunately for the Whites, Alaves are in a tricky situation right now, hovering above the drop zone by a single point after three successive league defeats.
They've won just four times all season, but it's worth noting that one of them came against Los Blancos earlier on. Alaves beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the capital in a shock result on matchday 11.
Alaves vs Real Madrid Head-To-Head
Real Madrid, rather unsurprisingly, have dominated this fixture with 15 wins from 19 clashes. Meanwhile, Alaves have taken the spoils on only two occasions.
One of those was earlier this season, while the other came in October 2018 when El Glorioso eked out a slender 1-0 win at home.
Alaves Form Guide (all competitions): L-W-L-L-L
Real Madrid Form Guide (all competitions): D-W-D-L-L
Alaves vs Real Madrid Team News
Alaves
Centre-back Rodrigo Ely is the only casualty for the home side. His injury is long-term, as he sustained a ligament rupture last month and will miss the remainder of the campaign.
On the bright side, Alberto Rodriguez is available again after serving his suspension for getting sent off in the loss to Cadiz.
Injured: Rodrigo Ely
Suspended: None
Unavailable: None
Real Madrid
The reigning champions will be without Rodrygo and Daniel Carvajal for the Basque Country trip, both of whom are injured.
Toni Kroos must proceed with caution as he's one booking away from suspension. Meanwhile, first-team players such as Karim Benzema, Eden Hazard, and Marco Asensio are all expected to feature in the XI after starting on the bench in the Alcoyano defeat.
Injured: Rodrygo and Daniel Carvajal
Suspended: None
Unavailable: None
Alaves vs Real Madrid Predicted XI
Alaves (4-4-2): Fernando Pacheco; Ximo Navarro, Victor Laguardia, Florian Lejeune, Ruben Duarte; Martin Aguirregabiria, Tomas Pina, Rodrigo Battaglia, Luis Rioja; Joselu, Edgar Mendez.
Real Madrid (4-3-3): Thibaut Courtois; Lucas Vazquez, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Ferland Mendy; Luka Modric, Casemiro, Toni Kroos; Eden Hazard, Karim Benzema, Marco Asensio.
Alaves vs Real Madrid Prediction
Alaves have become somewhat of a bogey team for this Madrid side in recent seasons. Considering Madrid's run of poor results in their last few games, we expect them to struggle to get anything but a draw here.
Prediction: Alaves 1-1 Real Madrid
