Zinedine Zidane and his troops travel to Poland tomorrow to play Legia Warsaw as Real Madrid look to consolidate top spot. If Los Blancos win and Borussia Dortmund do them a favor by defeating Sporting Lisbon they will qualify for the next round of matches.
But that’s not their primary concern. Madrid not qualifying for the next round would be considered a disaster and it ‘s something they are expected to do. Finishing top is the target for Madrid and they should be able to get the win tonight.
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Madrid will be without a few key personnel against the Polish outfit. Both Marcelo and James Rodriguez have been left in the Spanish Capital for the game with Zidane deciding to rest them.
The three up top are once again set to feature but Alvaro Morata might get a look in ahead of Karim Benzema considering form and the level of difficulty of the opponent .Morata is Madrid’s top scorer this season despite most of his appearances being from the bench.
Benzema has had a very slow start to the season. So far he has made 12 appearances in all competitions but has only managed 4 goals. Morata has 7, a tally matched by Cristiano Ronaldo recently after his hat-trick.
Pepe has been ruled out for 6 weeks after the latest scan on his hamstring injury. With Ramos also out of action for some time, it leaves Zidane to make do with the players he has.
Here is the squad list for the game against Warsaw:
Goalkeepers: Keylor Navas, Casilla and Rubén Yáñez.
Defenders: Carvajal, Varane, Nacho, Coentrão, Danilo and Tejero.
Midfielders: Kroos, Kovacic, Asensio and Isco.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale, Lucas Vázquez, Mariano and Morata.
Ronaldo back in form
After a long and barren spell for Real Madrid, the longest he has ever faced, Ronaldo is once again firing on all cylinders. He scored a hat-trick against Alaves over the weekend but also missed a penalty.
The Portuguese is in contention for this year’s Ballon d’Or, with several critics and players tipping him to win the award this time around. He will hope to continue the form into tomorrow night’s game as well.
He has already opened his account in Europe this season with 2 goals. It’s not a tally that he would like to stay the same at the end of the group stage and he will expect to net against a much weaker opposition in Legia Warsaw
