Real Madrid will face bottom Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday (1745 GMT) on the fourth day of group D of the Champions League, hoping to regain the lead in the event of victory and puncture by Moldovan Sheriff Tiraspol, first in the classification tied on points with the white team.
The Ukrainians, who will try to redeem themselves from a resounding 5-0 defeat two weeks ago in Kiev, arrive in the Spanish capital with the idea of offering a better image after beating Desna 4-1 in their championship.
Lurking is Inter Milan, third with four points, who will try to subdue the Sheriff in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria, the region proclaimed de facto independent, to even surpass him in the table.
The Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti will rely on his fledgling star, the Brazilian Vinicius, who has scored twice against Elche in the League on Saturday, but will also have Casemiro, who left the duel with a bleeding nose, and the French Karim Benzema, who did not travel to the city of Elche by technical decision.
Both Casemiro and Benzema exercised normally with their teammates, after enjoying a day off on Sunday.
Since the arrival of Ancelotti, the ‘merengue’ attack has been more effective, with a more attractive game than that of his predecessor, the French Zinedine Zidane.
So far, Real Madrid has scored 33 goals in 14 games, which is an average of 2.36 per game, better than the 1.69 on average in Zidane’s 52 games last season.
Vinicius in shape
Its main supporter is Vinicius, who already has nine goals, seven of them in the League and two in the Champions League.
As the season progresses, the defense is consolidating further, especially thanks to the intensity provided by Austrian David Alaba. The brand new signing of the ‘white house’ has only stopped playing one of the 14 games played in both competitions and scored a great goal against Barcelona at the Camp Nou on October 24.
Ancelotti will be forced to replace Brazilian Rodrygo in attack due to hamstring problems, although the extent of the injury is still unknown.
With the loss of Rodrygo, the offensive trident that he maintains with Benzema and Vinicius is broken, so the coach could opt for Marco Asensio who already started as a starter against Osasuna, when the Brazilian also complained injured.
Lucas Vázquez would be the other option, now that Dani Carvajal has already recovered for the position of right back.
However, the other possibility would be the Belgian Eden Hazard, although Ancelotti prefers him more on the left side.
Donetsk coach Roberto de Zerbi traveled to Madrid without his Burkinabe striker, Lassina Traoré, after he had to be removed on a stretcher in the match against Inter Milan due to a serious knee injury a month ago.
Frenchman Benoit Bastien will be in charge of refereeing the match. The 38-year-old referee has been an international since 2014 and this season he managed Ajax-Besiktas in the Champions League.
